Never Let Me Go
by 0Wishful-Thoughts0
Summary: Time doesn't heal all wounds. If one person of Fairy Tail suffers, then the rest do as well. And they will pay any cost if it just means being able to make one of their nakama happy once more. "Don't you get it? He wants us to break Jellal out of jail."
1. Prologue

**Never Let Me Go**: A Fairy Tail Fanfiction

**Additional Summary: **Time doesn't heal all wounds.  
This fact is made evident once Gray accidentally runs into a sobbing Erza, still mourning over the loss of Jellal. Not knowing what his action will cause, he relays this information to Natsu and Lucy, and the former decides that the Titania's suffering needs to come to an end.

If one person of Fairy Tail suffers, then the rest do as well. And they will pay any cost if it just means being able to make one of their nakama happy once more.

**Genre:** Hurt/Comfort/Drama/Adventure/Romance/Suspense, with a sprinkling of humor thrown in every once and a while. ;D

**Main Pairing:** ErzaxJellal (main pairing)

**Other Pairings:** (subject to change; Love triangles will be resolved based on what you guys think, and how I think the story will best turn out. ;)  
LisannaxNatsuxLucy  
LevyxGajeelxMirajane  
LucyxGrayxCanaxJuvia  
GrayxErzaxJellal  
NatsuxGrayxLucyxLoke  
GajeelxMirajanexFried (added due to popular request)

**A/N: **I got the idea of this story when I was doing a profile survey thing. I had to come up with a storyline that included both Natsu and Jellal, and I came up with this. Unfortunately, my computer glitched and the survey wasn't updated to my profile, but ah well. T_T

**Disclaimer:** Nope! I do not own Fairy Tail. Although… I wish I did. ;D

**Edit as of October 24****th****, 2011.**

* * *

Gray lazily stared up at the large, pink sign suspended in the air above him, a tired expression contorting his features. _Fairy Hills_.

It was just as how he had remembered it from when he was younger, back when he still visited the dormitory constantly. It was on the same high hill, and was as big as his memory insisted. The building's color was obviously fading, and he subconsciously realized that that meant that the women in charge of the dorm would eventually put out a mission to have someone take the time to repaint it. Either that, or they'd just do it themselves. It really depended on how lazy they were feeling.

Gray hadn't actually visited the dorms for a very long time. He hadn't been allowed back until now since the former matron of the dormitory was long gone, and Erza (being the Head Girl) had finally approved of men coming and going between the hours of ten through five. Then again, he probably would've been allowed in anyway because of a certain _request_ from a certain _short, ancient, hairy_ master.

"_Gray-Chaaaaan!" _

_The ice mage turned, wide-eyed towards the Guild Master of Fairy Tail, Makarov. The expression of the miniature, old man was a creepy one. Large and gleeful, squinty-eyed, and merry, and eagerly waving Gray towards him._

_There was no doubt about it: _Someone_ had obviously been drinking tonight._

_The black-haired mage couldn't help but hesitate to move towards him. He knew that he shouldn't be denying a request from his master, but. . . _Juvia_ was hunting him down. Would it really be alright to blow his cover by consenting with Makarov's wishes? Gray slowly craned his neck to look behind the large, wooden pillar he was hiding behind._

_Sure enough, a certain blunette water mage was excitedly tossing over tables, hearts replacing her actual eyes, ignoring all of the other mages as she sing-songed, "Graaaaay-Saaaaamaaaa! Where areeee youuuuu? "_

_Gray winced, before quickly adjusting his head so that he was hidden behind the safety of the wooden pillar. A small frown on his lips, he shot a glance to Master Makarov, who still had that stupid grin on his face, but was now wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, making the ice mage's features contort into one of disgust. _

"_So this is how it all ends," Gray muttered to himself, "I'm either going to be raped by my blue-haired, crazy, overprotective stalker who somehow thinks that we're in a relationship, or by the pedophilic old man that only hires some mages because of their boob sizes."_

_The man paused for a moment, thinking over his options, before bluntly stating, "Well, I'd rather get raped by the one that actual _has_ boobs. . ."_

_After taking in a gulp of air for good luck, Gray stepped out of his hiding place, before beginning his walk of death towards his lovestruck suitor. But before he could get very far, a thunderous roar sounded over all of the noise the guild was making, "GRAY FULLBUSTER, GET YOUR FILTHY, NAKED ASS OVER HERE!"_

_Out of shock, Gray looked down to stare at his. . . ahem, _assets_._

_He groaned as he realized that he _was_ naked._

"_GRAAAAY!"_

_With a sigh, Gray turned away from Juvia (who was thankfully being held back by Erza) and towards the Master, who was angrily huffing and puffing in a size that was bigger than his usual. However, once Gray took his seat at the bar next to him and Mira offered him a dishtowel to cover himself up, Makarov's face contorted back into its creepy, overly friendly, pedophilic smile. "Gray-Chan," said mage couldn't stop the grimace at the suffix added to his name, "Won't you do me a favor?"_

_Gradually, the ice mage's expression changed into a hesitantly curious one. "A favor?"_

_A twinkle lit in Makarov's eye, and his pedophilic grin morphed into a devilish smirk, "It's more of a mission actually. . ."_

Apparently, Gray' s longtime friend, Cana, had been having major drinking issues lately, and Makarov had sent him on a mission to try to convince her to tone it down a bit. The black-haired mage allowed a bitter frown onto his expression.

_He should've gotten Macao to do this job. Cana listened to Macao last time._ . .

Unfortunately, Macao was off with the Boy Scouts or something of the sort with Romeo. For some reason, Makarov saw Gray as the person _other_ than Macao that Cana would listen to. The ice mage could only assume that this was because he had known Cana longer than a lot of the others, and because their bond was pretty strong. Either way, he couldn't really complain. The Master was giving him a reward of two-thousand-five-hundred jewels if he succeeded, and that was more than enough to keep Gray happy. _Especially_ for such an easy job.

The only problem was coming up with a way to convince Cana to stop her obsessive drinking.

Gray sighed, but pushed open the front door anyway. He looked around, half expecting the little old lady that was long gone to rush in expecting a girl, and then give him a lecture about how he should wear clothes. At force of habit, Gray looked down at himself and sighed, obviously exasperated.

He had forgotten to wear a shirt…. Again.

_You can do this, Gray. Remember, there is _money_ on the line!_

Still, Gray couldn't stop himself from taking in the familiar lobby that doubled as a living room. It still had that homey aura to it that he remembered strongly, and when he closed his eyes, it was easy for him to imagine the place as it had been when he was younger: Children chasing each other around, laughter sounding throughout the rooms, angry yells from the older women about perverted little kids, and even the scolding frown from the former grandmotherly matron.

Shaking his head to rid himself of the thoughts, Gray made his way to the right, towards the place he remembered as being Cana's room. He opened the door, not even stopping to knock, somewhat glad that the ladies here didn't care about keys and such, and that the rooms opened easily. Cana probably wouldn't have opened it if she knew it was him. She had probably gotten the hint that Master was going to send someone to talk with her about her "problems."

But what Gray saw before him, wasn't Cana's room at all.

As soon as he opened the door, hot steam flew towards him, temporarily marring his vision. As he waved away the substance while shielding his eyes, a loud gasp and a few high-pitched screams caused him to forget about his sight, and commence freak-out mode. Just his luck.

Of _course,_ he'd accidentally open the door to the Lady's Showers when a majority of the women in the dorms decided to take a shower..

Just. His. Freaking. Luck.

Cheeks stained a shade of red that was bright enough to rival Erza's hair, and eyes wide enough that they could compete with Happy's, Gray yelped, before managing, "W-Wha—I-I didn't mean. . . Uhh. . . S-Sorry, ladies! W-Wrong room!" Before he could see their reactions, he slammed the door shut, and ran for his life. Even though he had run at a full sprint, he could still hear the conjoined yells of anger coming from Levy and some of his other female nakama.

"G-Gray-Sama. . .S-Saw me. . . _N-N-N-N-Naked_. . .!"

Gray felt his face flush even more at the half squeal-half scream that obviously came from Juvia. His face became even _more _red when he heard a loud THUMP! which probably signified that Juvia had fainted. There was a simultaneous battle cry, before the thunderous stomps of angry female mages that had began chasing him sounded throughout the halls.

Knowing them for as long as Gray did, he could only assume that they were planning to torture him slowly, tear his limbs apart, use them as decorations, skewer his head, and then stick it outside the dorms as a warning.

He shook his head, in a lame attempt to dismiss his pessimistic thoughts.

_Shit. That wasn't Cana's room. . . I could've sworn. . ._

The ice mage frowned, but dashed into the next room he saw. He glanced at his surroundings. It seemed to be an armory of some sort.

Gray hurriedly closed the door behind him, and threw himself into a corner of the room, under what seemed to be a large sword. . . or was it a spear? Nevertheless, he put his hands over his ears, and tried to think. A habit that he had kept back from when he was much younger. He could hear the thumping of heart, and could still feel the vibrations of what was probably his fellow nakama eagerly searching for him so they could murder him.

When the beating of his heart returned to its normal rate, Gray slowly allowed his hands to fall to the floor. He looked around in wonder. _What kind of Girls' Dorm has its' own armory?_

He stood up, and began to examine the objects around him, specifically at a piece of armor that looked eerily familiar. It was black, and looked like it was probably fitted. He reached out his hand to touch the smooth metal, but pulled it away at the last second.

_I'm on a mission. I have no time to be getting distracted…_

He turned back around to face the door. He was getting ready to walk towards it, when he heard a sudden burst of music, followed by a rustling noise.

There was the sound of his quick heartbeat again.

_Well. . . if there's something lurking around in an armory, then maybe they plan to steal something… Maybe Master will give me more jewels for this extra feat! _Gray couldn't help but let a greedy grin appear on his face.

Slowly, he lurked back to his corner, and made his way to the end of the wall. It opened up to what seemed to be another room, he realized.

He made out lyrics of a song being played on a radio, and he stopped to listen to the words.

_This time, this place  
Misused, Mistakes  
Too long, Too late,  
Who was I to make you wait?  
Just one chance, just one breath  
Just in case there's just one left.  
Cause you know,  
You know, you know. . ._

_That I love you, I've loved you all along.  
And I miss you, for being away for far too long.  
I keep dreaming, you'll be with me and you'll never go.  
Stop breathing, if I don't see you anymore._

There was a shaky voice that was quietly singing along, but it seemed to be choked. Gray's mind began to race with thoughts of what this could mean, as he continued to listen to the lyrics.

_On my knees, I'll ask  
Last chance for one last dance  
Cause with you, I'd withstand,  
All of Hell just to hold your hand  
I'd give it all,  
I'd give for us,  
Give anything, but I won't give up  
Cause you know, you know, you know. . ._

_That I love you, I've loved you all along.  
And I miss you, for being away for far too long.  
I keep dreaming, you'll be with me and you'll never go.  
Stop breathing, if I don't see you anymore._

_So far away, been far away for far too long.  
So far away, been far away for far too long.  
But you know,  
You know, you know_

_I wanted,  
I wanted you to stay,  
Cause I needed,  
I need to hear you say_

_I love you, I've loved you all along.  
And I forgive you, for being away for far too long.  
So keep breathing, cause I'm not leaving you anymore,  
Believe it, hold on to me, never let me go._

_Keep breathing, cause I'm not leaving you anymore,  
Believe it, hold on to me, never let me go.  
Hold on to me, never let me go.  
Hold on to me, never let me go._

The voice that had been singing along had seemed to choke at the lyrics "_I love you"_, and seemed to be crying hysterically now. Gray couldn't help but frown. Whoever this was was one of his nakama. And none of his nakama deserved to cry.

Gray was about to make his move to go comfort the lady who was crying, but realized he didn't even know who was crying yet. He slowly peeked behind the wall, and was shocked at what he saw.

Erza of Fairy Tail.

Erza, the Titania.

Erza, his comrade.

Erza, his friend.

He bit his tongue to stop the gasp of shock from being released, and quickly brought his head back to its former position. Just in time too, because Erza seemed to have thrown the radio while in her hysteric mode, and it whizzed by Gray, brushing by his long, untidy hair.

He gulped, and adjusted himself so that he was closer to the corner of the room. Gray tried to replay the lyrics in his mind to find an understanding as to why his comrade was so upset. It was then that he realized why Erza had been crying. The lyrics eerily reminded Gray of Erza and Jellal.

Gray couldn't help but feel a sharp pang pierce his heart, but he shook the thought away.

Erza was still obviously madly in love with Jellal, and had never gotten over the fact that she might never see him again.

The crying had reached a crescendo, and Gray took that as his cue to leave. He felt kind of bad listening in on Erza during what seemed to be a private moment of her life.

Swiftly but silently, Gray had left the room. And soon, he even left Fairy Hills. He had forgotten his mission. He had forgotten about the jewels that could've been his.

But he had convinced himself to never set foot in Fairy Hills again.

* * *

**A/N:** The song that Erza was listening to is called "Far Away" by Nickelback. Another question in the survey had said "If you had to write a songfic about Erza, which song would you pick?" I had picked this song, and when I combined it with the idea for the storyline, this is what I thought of.

But now that I think of it, I kind of like it as a one-shot. I'm not very sure whether or not I should continue this story the way I planned to. But eh. That's your decision! Haha, when I was rereading this, I realized that I haven't even gotten to the part that includes Natsu yet. XP


	2. The Beginning of The End

**A/N: I've decided to continue this story. If you want to keep the simple ending displayed in the first chapter, then just DON'T continue reading. XD  
I mean, at least you have an option, so it pretty much is the perfect solution for me. ;D**

**DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately, I don't own Fairy Tail. If I did than I would be drawing everywhere I went. XD**

**Edited on October 25, 2011. :)**

* * *

"Gray, are you sure you weren't just imagining things?" Lucy asked skeptically. Gray couldn't really blame her for not believing him. What he had just shared with Lucy and Natsu seemed very. . . out of the blue.

Gray nodded half-heartedly, now beginning to see that sharing this news _probably_ wasn't the best idea. "I didn't want to believe it either. . ."

The trio was sitting around Lucy's small dining table which was meant to sit a maximum of two people, but Natsu hadn't hesitated to pull up a chair. Gray had actually taken the courtesy to call Lucy and give her a heads up that he would be stopping by to talk to her, which Lucy herself found incredibly shocking. Natsu of course, had simply followed Gray to her place, and that was that.

Lucy was thrust back into the present when Natsu banged his fist on the wooden surface of her table, causing her to flinch. "I am _not_ going to deal with the fact that one of my nakama is depressed! We have to do something you guys, don't you understand! ?" His eyes were full of a strange mixture of both sympathy and anger, and it was obvious by his expression that he wouldn't let the subject drop unless a solution was found.

Lucy and Gray slowly let their gazes meet, identical faces of slight worry resident on both. Gray broke the gaze, and downed the beer that was clutched tightly in his left hand. It was Lucy who slowly turned her head to face Natsu. "Well. . . What do you have planned?"

Natsu smirked deviously. "What do you guys think? Put together the pieces. Erza is sad because when Jellal finally turned back into himself, he was put into jail for the rest of his life. . ." He looked between the two eagerly, wondering if they were clever enough to catch his drift.

Both Lucy and Gray stared at him in confusion until Gray let out a groan of annoyance. "Look, Natsu. I completely understand what you're saying, but. . . all the possible consequences. . ."

Lucy's eyes widened, suddenly becoming worried at what Natsu might've cooked up in his mind. Now desperate to find out about Natsu's scheme, she eagerly turned to look at her two comrades. "What are you guys talking about! ?"

Natsu stuck out his bottom lip in an immature pout and looked away. Gray grit his teeth, before turning the scowl on his face towards Lucy. "Don't you get it? He wants us to break Jellal out of jail."

If it was possible, Lucy's eyes widened more before she stared at Natsu in complete shock, her mouth agape.

It took a while, but Natsu eventually met both her and Gray's heated stares. "You both make it sound like _I'm_ not making any sense, but _you guys_ are the ones that aren't making any sense!"

Lucy sighed, suddenly feeling bad. "I understand where you're coming from Natsu. . . but breaking someone out of jail. . . that's pretty difficult, not to mention risky. . ."

"I agree with Lucy. And I don't even know if that's what Erza wants! I overheard her reaction while I got lost in that crazy house." Gray couldn't stop himself from shuddering slightly. "She could've just been PMSing, or maybe just letting out her feelings. . . .It's probably not what she really wants anyway. She has to get over Jellal at some point, so we should just let this run her course. She'll get over it eventually."

Natsu opened his mouth to respond, but it was Lucy that reacted first.

Eyes narrowed, she stood up out of her chair, leaned across the table, and slapped Gray's cheek as hard as she possibly could, before slamming both of her fists down onto the table. The table quivered under the force of her fists, but managed to resist breaking. Both Natsu and Gray were wide-eyed at her violent actions, and Gray gingerly rubbed his cheek, getting ready to yell at her, but Lucy cut him off. "How can you be so _selfish_! ? I always thought that you were better than that!"

Gray growled at her, but was still unable to stop the blush from appearing onto his cheeks. He too stood up and banged his own fists onto the table, his strength causing it to split into two. Natsu jumped out of his chair in surprise, subconsciously backing away from the two fighters, something that was out of the ordinary for him. Under normal circumstances, he would've jumpws right into the argument, but at this point in time, he wasn't even entirely _sure_ what the two were fighting about. On the other hand, the breaking of the table made Lucy even more upset, since it _was_ her table after all. But before she could commence yelling at him, _he_ cut her off. "What are _you_ talking about! ? How am _I_ being selfish? ! I'm just as concerned for Erza as _either of you_ are!"

Lucy let out a short, angry laugh. "I'm not _stupid,_ Gray! I always knew you had a thing for Erza! What you just said confirmed my suspicions!"

Gray stared at her, his expression full of shock. He was obviously speechless. Natsu was equally surprised, especially since he hadn't noticed anything of the sort from his rival.

Lucy laughed wryly again, anger obviously taking control of her emotions. "I don't understand you. At _all_." Her tone was bitter, and unrelenting. "You're _saying _that you care for Erza so much, but you just want her for yourself. You don't actually _care_ for her feelings." As the words left her mouth, she suddenly realized how hard she had finally snapped. Taking in Gray's blank expression, her eyes seemed to widen, and she shook her head as though trying to shake away the memory of her words. "W-Wait. . . I-I didn't mean—"

Gray glared at her, making her cutoff her own sentence, "Don't _ever_ say that. You don't know what you're talking about."

A flash of offense flashed on the Celestial Spirit Mage's face, and Natsu watched as she clenched her fists tightly. He had the strong feeling that if they fought, it wouldn't be the friendly kind of fight that he was used to participating in, but a serious fight that could possibly ruin the relationship of his two nakama. Stepping between the two, he spread out his hands, "Hey, you guys. . . Fighting won't help anyone. Don't start anything stupid."

Both Gray and Lucy turned to the DragonSlayer, simultaneously saying, "Coming from _you_, Natsu." Natsu's affronted expression couldn't stop them from glancing at one another and laughing, the air of argument leaving their minds temporarily as thoughts of teasing Natsu entered them.

It was as though Natsu was completely oblivious to the fact that Lucy was teasing him just as much as Gray, because the pink-haired mage stomped over to his fellow male, a menacing expression taking hold of his features. "Are you trying to pick a fight with me?"

There was still a small smile on Gray's lips as he rose a single eyebrow, obviously not taking Natsu seriously, "What's it to ya?"

The simple question seemed to increase Natsu's anger, seeing as flames began to escape from the fire mage's mouth, aiming directly for Gray's face. A smirk still on his face, the ice mage was easily able to dodge the blow, especially since he was expecting something like that. Instead of hitting its target, the flames attached themselves to Lucy's curtains, but to his credit, Gray froze them to make sure that the fire wouldn't spread. It was obvious by this that Natsu hadn't used his full strength in those flames, which was why Gray was able to freeze it so easily.

Eyes wide, Lucy could do nothing but yell, "Are you _seriously_ doing this in my apartment! ?"

Natsu had a devilish grin on his face, "Gray?"

It was as though Gray had completely forgotten the bad mood he had previously been in, because he still had that large smirk on his face, "Luce, we'll take this _outside_."

Lucy managed a smile, and opened her mouth to thank him, but before she could, Gray tackled Natsu, and the two toppled out of her closed window, shattering the glass as they fell onto the asphalt, still duking it out. Lucy shielded her face from the flying shards, her face twitching slightly. "NATSU! GRAY!"

She dashed to her window to peer out of it. Sure enough, Gray was left in nothing but his boxers as he sent ice flying towards Natsu, and Natsu was laughing maniacally as he shot flame after flame at Gray. The pedestrians around them were hurriedly trying to avoid the magic that was flying everywhere, and an elderly man stopped to yell at the two mages, angrily waving his cane in the air, "Ya stupid whippersnappers! Leave me be!"

Lucy had formerly decided that she was going to let the two settle things themselves _without_ getting involved, but when Gray and Natsu stopped their fight to turn to the angry old man and simultaneously yell, "SCREW YOU!" before firing a load of magic in his general direction, she realized that she _had_ to get involved if she wanted Magnolia to remain intact.

She fumbled with the keys attached to her belt, hoping that she could find the proper one before the poor old man could be hit by Gray and Natsu's careless magic. Finally finding the one she was looking for, she thrust it upwards in the air, "Open a gate to the clock! Horologium!"

Luckily, it seemed like her Celestial Spirit knew what she had intended. The spirit enclosed the frightened pedestrian inside him, getting there just in time to protect him from Gray and Natsu's blow.

Letting out a sigh of relief, she turned her gaze back to Natsu and Gray to see how they had reacted.

Of course, it seemed like they didn't really care for the welfare of the old man at all, and they had resumed battling each other like there was no tomorrow.

Vein throbbing in her forehead, Lucy stomped out of her apartment, and onto the street where the two were still battling. She assumed that Horologium had returned to the spirit world and that the old man had run away, for there was no trace of either of them. Effortlessly, she walked through the makeshift battlefield, and by miracle, managed not to get hit by any of the flying ice or flames. She didn't stop until she got to the center of the battle zone, and even then, she didn't have the full attention of Gray and Natsu.

"Stop it, you guys!"

The two ignored her, and continued to fight.

Gritting her teeth, Lucy screamed it louder this time, "STOP IT, YOU GUYS!"

She remained ignored.

Steam was all but escaping through her ears, but it seemed to disappear as a lightbulb flashed beside Lucy's head. Her chocolate brown eyes squinted as she stared off in a single direction, before she yelled, "Oh, is that _Erza_?"

Immediately, the fray ended, and within the blink of an eye, Gray and Natsu had their arms around each other, fake grins on each of their faces. "E-Erza!"

"Aye!"

Lucy couldn't stop herself from laughing hysterically. Finally realizing what their blonde friend had done, both Natsu and Gray sweatdropped.

When the Stellar Spirit Mage finished laughing, she turned to her two friends, a large smile on her face, "Let's get something to eat. My treat."

Gray grinned, throwing an arm around Lucy's shoulders as he fistpumped the air, screaming, "Hell yeah!"

Natsu was also smiling stupidly, one of his arms around Lucy's shoulders as well, "Yes! Free food!"

Together the three made their way towards a nearby café. However, before they got there, Natsu stopped them before stepping in front. "Hey, while we're there, we can talk about my plan to get Jellal out of jail!"

Lucy and Gray stopped, and for a second, fright passed through Lucy's eyes. "Natsu, you shouldn't go around screaming things like that. . . Someone might here us and get the wrong idea!"

The DragonSlayer frowned, "Wrong idea? But you guys agreed to my plan!"

Lucy and Gray stared at him incredulously, and in unison, they exasperatedly yelled, "WHEN THE HELL DID WE SAY THAT! ?"

* * *

"Erza? What's the matter, honey?"

The scarlet-haired mage let a slow grimace appear on her face at the usage of the word "honey." Yet, she slowly moved her gaze from her toes to Mirajane's face. "How did you do it, Mira? When you lost Lisanna, how did you get over the pain?"

Mira frowned slightly, curious as to where this was heading. She paused, before saying, "By singing."

The sadness on Erza's face seemed to increase, and she looked away dejectedly. "Beer me."

A worried expression replaced the previous one on Mira's face, but she still complied to Erza's wishes. As Erza gulped down her alcoholic beverage, Mira asked the simple question. "Why did you want to know?"

Erza sighed, then gestured for another beer. While Mira turned to get her one, she continued to speak. "I don't know. I think I just wanted. . ." She sighed as Mira twirled to face her again to pass her the alcoholic beverage, cutting herself off with a pained expression. It seemed as though she was trying to hide it from the blue-eyed girl, because she tried to cover it up by downing the beer.

Still, Mirajane was not one to be easily fooled. A slow understanding spread across the kind face of the woman, as she quietly whispered with pity and understanding, "You wanted to get rid of the pain and weren't sure how."

Erza stared at her for a moment before biting her lower lip slightly and banging her head onto the bar table, covering it with her arms.

Mira's eyes widened, and she quickly pat Erza's hair in an odd form of consolation. "Oh, Sweetie. . ." Her eyes widened even more in slight horror as she noticed the quiet sobs racking the scarlet-haired mage's body.

After a few of moments of nothing but Erza's heavy breathing, Mira slowly lowered her face to stare directly at Erza's forehead. Even more slowly, Erza raised her head just enough so that she could stare back at Mira with her red-rimmed eyes.

Mirajane's deep blue eyes sparkled as she asked, "What can I do to help you?"

* * *

Several miles away from Fairy Tail and the town of Magnolia, a man tied by his wrists and ankles with cold, heavy iron lay bareback against the left wall of his jail cell.

His blue hair hung in a messy fashion down his forehead. His dark eyes stared blankly at the plain rock before him.

_Erza. . ._

A single tear fell out of the corner of his eye.


	3. The Plan, Part I

**A/N: Oh my geebers, thank you to everyone who read this story, and thank you even MOREEE to the people who reviewed. :') All of it really means a lot to me! Since I'm planning on making this a full-fledged fanfiction, I'm going to make sure I spell all of these names right. So, I'll have to go back and fix the names in the two other chapters I've already written. ^^;**

**Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, for Natsu's evil(ish) plan has begun!**

**Edited on October 9, 2011. :)**

* * *

Natsu frowned as he observed all the people that walked into the bar. "Whoa. I didn't think news would catch this fast…"

Though he, Gray, and Lucy had each only told a few people of their choice to come to this meeting, it looked as though the whole Fairy Tail had shown up.

Natsu had a plan, but he didn't have a plan for _everyone_ in Fairy Tail to take part of!

Worried, he turned to look at Gray and Lucy. "I thought we all agreed to only tell a few people!"

A small frown full of nervousness and doubt was on her features as she reasoned, "Well, the more the merrier, right? Anyway, I only told Levy. And you did say that Levy might be an important person in your plan, so don't look at me!"

Natsu forced himself to think. _Right. And if Levy came, then that explains why Jet and Droy are here too._

Gray, on the other hand, simply sighed. "I only told Gajeel, and you wanted him to come right? Even if you didn't, he'll be pretty useful. And it sorta slipped when I was on my… er… _assignment_ from Master Makarov, so Cana's in on it too. Her magic is powerful though, so she's also a good person to have on our team."

"So why is Juvia here! ? Was she invited?"

Lucy and Gray looked at their rosy-haired teammate as though he was stupid. When it still looked as though Natsu hadn't figured it out, Lucy sighed dramatically, and Gray blushed and looked away.

"Natsu, Juvia practically _stalks_ Gray."

The rosy-haired dragonslayer stared at her blankly, before it finally clicked. He grinned, letting out a short chuckle, "Oh, _riiiight._"

Gray turned to look at Natsu. "Whatever. Does it really matter _why _there's so many people here? Just dismiss the ones you don't need."

"Gray, that's mean!"

"Shut up, Lucy, he has a point."

Lucy's frown seemed to deepen, and she shot an exasperated look at her two friends. "You guys! It's not our fault that everyone wants to help Erza."

Gray cleared his throat. "As said by that famous old guy, 'Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.'"

Lucy rolled her eyes at his words. "That was Benjamin Franklin, smartass." Though she would never admit it aloud, she could understand his point.

But it seemed that Natsu didn't, for his eyes had widened considerably, "Holy crap! I think we have _way_ more than just three people. . . Does that mean we have to kill them all! ?"

Both Gray and Lucy slowly turned their heads to look at Natsu, eyes twitching slightly, but out of the two, it was Gray who spoke. "No. . .It means that you can't trust too many people with the same thing, genius. Especially for this, since it's technically illegal."

Natsu stared at Gray in awe. "But I trust _everyone_ in Fairy Tail! They're my nakama!"

Lucy sighed. Natsu obviously wasn't going to be able to understand the quote properly, and it didn't matter since he wanted to get rid of some of the "extra" people that showed up to. "Just forget it, Natsu."

Natsu gave her a peculiar look, and for a moment, Lucy feared that he would actually start _arguing_ with her, but eventually, he just shrugged, and turned to his fellow Fairy Tail members. _I'll just have to trick them out of staying here!_

"Hey you guys look! It's uhh," the dragonslayer was never the best when it game to being clever, so he just blurt out the first thing that came to mind, ". . .Whatever your heart desires!"

Gray and Lucy couldn't help but facepalm themselves.

Still, for some reason, it kind of worked. The members that were gathered before them blinked in shock, and a majority of them ran towards the direction Natsu had pointed at.

"Cana, now!" Gray shouted. She looked confused at first but eventually grasped his meaning.

Throwing down one of her cards, she created an effective barrier around the remaining members that would be staying to hear the meeting.

And as Lucy silently surveyed the crowd that had been smart enough to ignore Natsu's ridiculous attempt of distraction, she found herself smiling at the gathered bunch.

Levy. Gajeel. Cana. Juvia (whom Gray did not seem gladdened to see). Mirajane. Lisanna. Wendy. And even Loke was there since Natsu insisted that he needed to attend the meeting.

But eleven people was still a lot for the plan. And now that they were all ready and waiting for him to begin, Natsu had no idea how to start. This was made obvious when he opened his mouth to say something, but then hesitantly closed it, and turned his eyes towards Lucy, begging for her help.

Lucy shot him an encouraging smile and a nod, before taking the reins herself. "Well, we all know why we're here right?"

It was silent for a moment before Gajeel spoke up, "Isn't this some kind of meeting to do something that was illegal? Not sure what it was, but it sounded pretty fun to me!" The iron dragonslayer had a merry grin plastered onto his face.

At his words, Lucy turned to look at Gray with a single eyebrow raised. "You didn't tell him what this is about?" She whispered. Gray simply shrugged, as if he didn't know that he was supposed to, and turned his attention away from his blonde-haired friend.

"This is a meeting to break Jellal out of jail. Right, Lucy?"

Lucy grinned and nodded at Levy. _At least _someone_ seems to remember what they were told… if they were told anything at all._ She couldn't help but shoot another look at Gray.

But when the words left Levy's mouth, Lisanna's expression changed into one full of surprise. "Wait a second. . . Natsu told me that this was a meeting to discuss Erza's birthday present!"

Many people in the room frowned, their gazes moving to stare at the flame-headed "leader" of the entire operation. The dragonslayer couldn't stop a blush from appearing onto his features, and he looked away from them all as he said, "Well, that's _sorta_ the truth."

Several people in the room raised eyebrows at his words. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if this _does_ work out in the next few months or so, don't you think that Jellal's return would be a great present for Erza?"

The silence returned, but a few people eventually nodded in agreement. Erza's birthday was a while off, but they were sure that she would _definitely_ enjoy that present.

"This being her birthday present isn't really important right now. The important part is deciding how we're going to get Jellal out of jail first. That should be our focal point since it's the most difficult part of this whole operation." Gray pointed out. As he said this, his eyes scanned the crowd, meeting everyone's gaze for added emphasis. However, when his eyes landed on Juvia, he could see a trail of drool beginning to leak out of the side of his mouth. He felt his eye twitching, and hastily looked away.

"Right, and I _think_ I have a plan for that!" Natsu exclaimed, getting back on track.

"Well, one would hope so. Can we get this over with? Some of us have better things to do, Natsu," Gajeel said grumpily. His previous smile had faded when he realized that Natsu was the leader of the illegal operation and had thought of doing something such as this before he had.

At his bitter tone, Natsu simply rolled his eyes. "Well, the first thing that we would need is to know Jellal's surroundings. Like what's in the jail cell." He picked up a magic marker that Reedus had left on the table, and began to write in the air to his right.

"Now, it'll be difficult to even get in there. And so for this first part _we're_ not going to get in there."

His words were responded by blank, confused stares from his fellow nakama.

"Well, I mean _we_ aren't going to get in there, but _Loke_ is."

Loke blinked. How the hell was _he _supposed to get into Jellal's jail cell?

"And he's going to do that with the help of Lucy!" Lucy guffawed at him. She was pretty sure that he had said she wouldn't have to do anything too risky. And she was _pretty_ sure that illegally breaking into a jail cell was risky.

"Lucy is going to get herself arrested!"

At these words, Lucy's eyes widened to the size of saucers as she managed to get out, "WHAT! ?"

Gray also looked mortified, "Natsu, do you even know how _risky_ that is! ?"

There were numerous yells of agreement from the crowd, and Natsu couldn't help but be thankful that Cana's barrier not only made the group invisible and made sure that no one would even come close to them, but that it was also soundproof.

"SHUT UP!"

It took a while, but eventually everyone shut up.

"We need _someone_ to scale the area and figure out the jail's system. And Lucy's always talking about how she's the most 'normal' of us all, right?" Several people nodded, and Lucy could feel herself blushing. It sounded mean now, but she was pretty sure that it was the truth. "Well, since normal people are smart, Lucy should be able to comprehend what the jail cell is like. It's features, it's weak points. How strong the bars are, if there are any windows. When she gets to eat, and the rest of a prisoner's schedule."

"Natsu, that's a great idea and all, but Jellal has been sentenced to stay in jail his whole lifetime. He'll probably have a completely different jail cell from whatever Lucy gets, and his schedule will probably be different too." Gray pointed out. Even though Natsu had convinced him that getting Jellal out of jail was a pretty good idea, there was no way that Gray was going to get Lucy in jail too for the sake of this plan. It was just ridiculous!

"And that's why we have _Loke_. He can pop out while they're sentencing Lucy to her trial, hide, then sneak over to where they're keeping Jellal!"

Lucy could feel that previous blush and all her former color drain from her face. Was Natsu so serious about getting Jellal out of jail that he wouldn't mind getting her _in_ it! ?

Gray and many of the others shook his head, but since Gray and Lucy seemed to be Natsu's right hand men/women, most of them just remained calm and let Gray do the talking. "Natsu, don't be stupid. The only thing that I can think of to get Lucy in jail for just one night is to create some major destruction. Now one, Lucy isn't really the destructive type, and though her spirits may be, I'm pretty sure Lucy wouldn't want them to destroy an entire city just for this. Remember that people actually _live_ in those places we destroy. I already feel bad enough ruining their town on _accident_, but ruining their town on _purpose_! ? That's just a whole new low, even for the members of Fairy Tail. And two, the Council said that they were cracking down on us. Remember that? They said if we destroy anymore towns, then that would be the end of Fairy Tail. And I know that we're all here for a good cause, but is that cause enough for us to risk the end of Fairy Tail? I don't think so."

Many people nodded in agreement, and while Lucy let out a sigh of relief, Natsu's face fell dramatically. Feeling bad for her friend since he seemed to really be excited about his idea, Levy suggested, "Maybe there's another way we can survey the place?"

It was silent for a moment as everyone in the room pondered this.

"I think I have something, Natsu!" Mirajane exclaimed gleefully. All heads turned towards her to see what she had to say, and so she continued. "Well, even though Jellal is going to be under huge restrictions, they _have_ to still give him bathes and water. Right?

There were several confused and hesitant nods, but Juvia knew what was coming, and she couldn't help but let her eyes widen at the thought.

"I think that this means that we should send _Juvia_ in instead of Lucy. She has the power to turn her body into water, so she could easily infiltrate the jail as water."

Juvia stared in awe as her fellow Fairy Tail members nodded eagerly in agreement. She looked at Gray, slightly hoping that he would think of something to say to make everyone change their minds so she wouldn't have to go in, but he seemed to be in an avid discussion with Lucy.

The fire burning strongly in her soul, she slowly nodded. "Juvia agrees to do it."

Natsu grinned widely at her, glad that they had still managed to think of a plan. "Alright then, we have the first part of our plan. This meeting is adjourned until Juvia arrives back with some news."

"Hold on, I say that we pick a mission first as a cover-up. An easy one. That way no one will wonder where Juvia is, and that way, Juvia can have a backup squad in case she needs one without anyone being suspicious," Mirajane added.

"Ah, good point Mira!" Lisanna said grinning. "Well, who should we send to go with Juvia?"

_Gray-sama. Gray-sama. Gray-sama. Gray-sama. Gray-sama!_

As if reading Juvia's thoughts, Gray spoke up. "I don't think that Natsu, Lucy or I should go. Since we always go on missions with Erza, she might feel kind of dejected if we go on a mission without her."

"I'll go!" Wendy spoke up. Many eyes turned to her in wonder because they forgot she was there since she was so quiet. Natsu nodded in approval.

"And I will too!" Lisanna said grinning. "I haven't been on a mission in so long!" Everyone turned to Natsu, waiting for him to approve or disapprove of Lisanna going.

"Um… isn't it kind of dangerous Lisanna?" Natsu muttered shyly.

Everyone blinked. She would be with Wendy most of the time completing that fake mission and the rest of the time she would probably be planning things out with Juvia who had the only semi-dangerous job. The task didn't seem risky at all.

_I wonder why Natsu let Wendy, who's the youngest of us all, go, but not Lisanna…_ Lucy couldn't help but wonder. _Maybe he doesn't want to lose her again. . . ?_

"I'll go then." Cana offered half-heartedly. She seemed to have realized that she would be the only other person that would be able to fill the role well.

Loke couldn't go since he was a Stellar Spirit now and had to stay with Lucy to avoid suspicion.

Levy couldn't go because Jet and Droy would each become annoyed and suspicious.

Mirajane couldn't go because she hadn't gone in a mission in years and that would cause _major_ suspicions. Especially when it came to Makarov.

And Gajeel? Well, she wasn't sure why Gajeel couldn't go, but since he hadn't volunteered himself, it meant that he probably just didn't want to.

Natsu nodded slowly, his eyes downcast and his cheeks a bright pink. Obviously he felt pretty… was shy the word? About seeming so overprotective about Lisanna.

People stared at him waiting for him to dismiss them all, but Natsu remained silent.

It was Lucy who decided to speak up, "Alright, this meeting is adjourned. Cana?"

She nodded, and released the barrier surrounding them. Casually, the group drifted apart and set off on their normal tasks for the day. Luckily, everyone else seemed to have forgotten about the meeting that was supposed to have taken place earlier.


	4. The Night Before the Departure

**A/N: Thank you everyone for all the love and support of this story. :3  
It really does mean a lot for me. And I should warn you now… Things may seem like they're heading one way, but in the end, they'll end up going in a **_**totally**_** different direction. ;D**

**I try to make it impossible to jump to the right conclusion. X3**

**Anyway, thank you for the reviews, cuz:**

**They mean a lot to me. Like A LOT A LOT.**

**They make me feel loved**

**When I find something that makes me loved, I tend to do it a lot… Hence, I am inspired to write more chapters at a more frequent interval. X3**

**Now enjoy! :D**

**Edited October 9, 2011.**

* * *

"Gray, you're being ridiculous. Lucy does have a point you know."

The Ice Mage in question did nothing but roll his eyes. He had come here to lecture Cana. Not the other way around. And yet, here he was, listening to a speech spoken by his friend half-heartedly.

"Are you even listening to me anymore? !" Cana asked, an exasperated tone in her voice.

Gray sighed. He could either lie and be caught, or tell the truth and be somewhat embarrassed.

Before he could make a decision though, it seemed as if Cana had managed to read his mind. "There's no point in lying you know. I already placed an anti-lie spell about the room. Lie to me, and you'll start having random spasms on the floor," she warned.

Gray groaned as he tried to rationalize with himself. With another dejected sigh, he asked, "What did Lucy tell you?"

"She said that you thought that getting Jellal out of jail was a bad idea, then she went on about how she thought that you were being selfish. She failed to mention why she felt that way however."

Gray couldn't help but let the most minute grin appear on his face. At least he knew one person in Fairy Tail who could hold her tongue. "Well, you do have to admit: It's not the best idea. I mean, there's so much to lose if we get caught. And even if we do break him out of jail, what then? We'll probably be the first people the Council will come to question. We can't hide him forever."

Cana, who had stood up to pour herself and her guest a drink, shot Gray a sideways glance before speaking slowly, as if she wasn't sure how to word what she wanted to say. "I understand what you mean… but I have a feeling that this situation means something more to you than one of Natsu's other ideas." She made her way over to where Gray sat, and handed him a beer. They each avoided each other's gaze.

It wasn't until Cana finally grew tired of the silence that she spoke again. "I've known you since forever. All of you. You may be able to lie to them, but you can't lie to me that easily."

Gray let out the breath he had been holding in an annoyed fashion. "Well, right now I _can't_ lie. What about your spell?"

Cana rolled her eyes, and simply snapped her fingers. "Fine, have it your way. But even without the spell, it'll be hard for you to lie to me. Face it, Gray, I know you too well."

The ice mage went back to avoiding his friend's calm gaze, and played with his fingers that were still grasping the beer bottle as he muttered, "Touché."

Gently, Cana sat beside her longtime friend and simply waited for him to say something. She wasn't stupid. If she kept pushing him for an answer, then he was never going to give her one. She simply had to wait for him to make the first move.

"How are you and Macao?"

There was only so much Cana could do to force herself to _not_ wring Gray's throat for avoiding her question, but she simply sighed and answered his question anyway. "I'm not even sure. Honestly? I think I might… not like him as much as I used to."

This caused Gray to look up. "Oh?"

"I don't know. I'm realizing that… well… maybe we don't stand a chance. And that… maybe I can do better than someone who's already been divorced once and has a kid. You know?"

Gray nodded slowly. "What kind of someone are you looking for?"

Cana paused, as if she were considering this for a moment. "Definitely someone that can keep up with my drinking. I definitely don't want someone who passes out only after their twentieth drink or so. And maybe…. Someone that really understands me, someone that's easy to talk to. You know?" Gray nodded again. After a short silence, Cana quietly asked, "What about you?"

Gray too seemed to ponder the question for a short while. "Someone that is able to read through me, but knows exactly when to share tell me what they already know. Someone who isn't afraid to know me, inside-out. Someone who knows exactly how I work, and knows how to talk to me about… touchy subjects without getting my nerves up."

The awkward silence resumed. And each looked down to their hands that were attached to their beers.

Slowly, their gazes finally met each other's.

It was at that moment that Gray realized that he had already down a satisfactory fourty-nine beers, and surprisingly still wanted more. Realized that he had been the quick pick of Makarov to talk some sense into Cana, that he had just gotten a lot of personal information out of her in just a brief hour or so.

At that same moment, Cana was realizing similar things. She understood Gray and his entire system of thinking, and had just admit it to herself not too long ago. She forced herself to admit that she actually enjoyed listening to Gray and all his personal issues. She had just started talking to him about something that was obviously a touchy subject for him, yet he had not yelled at her once.

Both realized, that at that very moment, they were practically perfect for each other.

Right after that instant, they each turned their heads away, their cheeks stained a bright crimson.

"Maybe I should—"

"I think that it's time—"

They both looked at each other in shock, surprised expressions on their faces. Then once more, they each looked away.

Gray downed his beer, and Cana placed her already-empty bottle on the coffee table. Soon afterward, Gray did the same.

Slowly, he stood up, and clutched the jacket he was sporting tighter around his body. Cana stood too, hugging her arms since her blouse wasn't keeping her very warm. Slightly behind him, they walked towards the door. Gray carefully put his fingers around the doorknob, but before he twisted it to the right, he shot a shy look at the girl behind him.

"Bye, Cana."

"Bye, Gray," she whispered before slowly bringing her gaze down to her feet again.

He turned his gaze forward once more, then twisted the knob slightly. He couldn't help but shoot one look at her again before pulling the door open. He shot her a small, timid smile that she probably didn't see, then silently made his way out of the room.

Cana looked up at the door as it slowly closed behind tried to sort out her thoughts, but she wasn't very sure _what_ to think of what had just happened to the two friends.

_I thought he swore never to visit Fairy Hills again. Did he really care so much about my drinking problems that he actually broke his own vow?_

She thought about it some more, and then shook the thought away. She walked purposely over to the kitchen, and pulled out her final beer bottle in a seemingly casual way.

_I had thought that Makarov was paying him to talk to me about my alcohol issues… He wasn't doing a very good job if he drank so much beer with me…. Or did he really just want to talk to me…?_

_I can't believe that he shared so much with me. . . I thought it was supposed to be the other way around?_

_Did he really drink as much beer as I did? Did he even drink more?_

_And that feeling I felt in my chest…_

_The look I saw in his eyes…_

_But I thought he liked…_

* * *

"Erza? You alright?"

The scarlet-haired girl looked up in surprise. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't even realized that a beautiful white-haired mage had been staring directly at her for quite some time. "Yeah… I'm fine, Lisanna."

The younger girl frowned, obviously not convinced. "You sure? You haven't seemed to be very…. Erza -likelately."

Erza forced herself to let out a laugh. "And how do you define Erza?"

Lisanna blinked, pausing for a moment to gather her words before she spoke. "Well, you're tough. You seem to never really show emotion about things. You almost always have some kind of armor on you, and you usually take the responsibility of keeping Gray and Natsu from fighting. Plus you also—"

Erza forced a grin, and interrupted her. "Ah, so this is about you and Lucy being too lazy to look after Gray and Natsu yourselves, huh? Well, they're _your_ men, so you should—"

"What do you mean_ our_ men?" Lisanna asked a somewhat offended tone to her voice.

Erza looked at the younger mage curiously. "Well, I always thought that… you and Natsu…" Lisanna looked away as she realized what the older mage had implied, but her cheeks were colored a bright red. "Lucy and Gray… I always looked at you guys together and saw you as a couple."

Lisanna simply shrugged. "I-I-I don't know what you're talking about. I can easily say that Natsu and I are simply just friends…"

Erza let a genuine playful smile grace her features. "_Riiiight._"

Lisanna's blush became brighter. "B-B-Besides… him and Lucy… since I've been gone…"

Erza rolled her eyes. "I'm not sure about that. You have a huge chance with Natsu. I think that you're the only girl that he's ever felt romantic feelings for!"

Lisanna frowned and looked away. "Knowing Natsu, he could easily get the feelings of romance and friendship confused… I think to him it's like the same thing…"

Erza raised an eyebrow. "It sounds to me like your childhood crush hasn't gone away yet."

Lisanna's frown deepened, but her blush continued to grow brighter. "Erza-San, I—"

"'S everything alright ladies?" Natsu exclaimed playfully, a large smile on his face as he seemed to pop out of nowhere, interrupting their discussion.

The poor, white-haired mage couldn't help but jump from his sudden arrival, "N-N-Natsu!"

The pink-haired boy blinked, obviously confused at his friend's reaction. "Yes, Lisanna?"

Seeing that the younger girl seemed completely helpless, Erza stepped in to help her out, waving her hand as if to wave away Natsu's confusion, "It's nothing Natsu. You just surprised her is all." Lisanna blinked, and quickly nodded in agreement with the cover story. She seemed to be calming down too, which was a good thing.

"Oh. Well, what's up? You two seemed to be having an interesting conversation. Look at you Lisanna, you're as red as a tomato!"

They both laughed, and for a split second, Erza saw herself and Jellal laughing, instead of Natsu and Lisanna. She quickly shook the thought away, absentmindedly stating, "Ah, I have to go. I'm having a headache, which was what Lisanna and I were talking about, but I interrupted her while she was helping Mira out which is why she was so flushed. All the running back and forth must not be good for one's body." The added story to the excuse stumbled its way out of her mouth, but Erza wasn't really too concerned about how much sense it made. Natsu would pretty much buy anything.

And as she suspected, she was right. The dragonslayer nodded, large grin still on his face as he exclaimed, "Feel better!" before resuming his conversation with Lisanna. Erza smiled at the two, before standing up out of her chair, and heading towards the doow.

As soon as he was sure Erza was gone, Natsu leaned in to whisper, "They're leaving tomorrow."

* * *

**A/N: I really hope you liked it! This chapter was super duper fun to write. ;D**

**Please review, because they're extremely appreciated! **


	5. Juvia's Mission: Part I

**A/N: Ahh! I'm sorry for the late reply… but here we gooooo! 8D**

**Edit: I made this one a tad bit longer than originally planned. Why? Because it's the Holiday Season, and this is my gift to you! 8D  
Ehem. Please excuse my cheeseiness, and enjoy the story. (:**

**

* * *

**

"Wendy! Where on Earth are you going?"

Wendy paled quickly as she turned to face her flying cat. "Oh, Charle… I thought that you were out with Happy…?"

Charle rolled her eyes, and looked at Wendy with a scrutinizing expression. "Ha, yeah right! I only agreed to leave with him for a week because you asked me to. Now, what are you doing?"

Wendy's mind raced with possible answers. _I can't possibly tell her the truth though… She'd never let me go through with it! And besides, she'd probably rat us out to Master Makarov… oh… what to do, what to do?_

"She's going on a mission with Juvia and me."

Wendy turned her head, to shoot her savior an appreciative stare. It was none other than Cana who looked like she had had a rough night of some sorts. "Oh. Good for you then Wendy-Chan. Always thinking ahead. So, what kind of mission are we going on this time?"

Cana forced herself to scoff. "_We_? No, no, no. This mission is strictly for a three-man squad only."

Charle stared at Cana as thought she didn't understand at all what she was saying. "But… I always go with Wendy-Chan…."

Both Cana and Wendy frowned. Neither of them wanted to hurt the cat's feelings, but they had to put the sake of the mission before that. Besides, it was just once…

"I'm sorry Charle-San, maybe next time?"

* * *

Wendy quickly grabbed Cana's hand, and marched her off to the direction of the bar. The rendezvous point for the team that had just been formed not too long ago. Soon enough, Juvia came.

The three just sat there for a moment, none of them sure what to do next. They hadn't discussed with Natsu whether he wanted them to leave quickly, or wait for him to arrive.

They had decided on the latter however, and were now making somewhat awkward conversation.

Not really knowing what to say, Wendy slowly turned to Juvia. "How's it going with Gray-Sama?"

She noticed Juvia's quick, intense blush, but since her back was turned to Cana, she didn't see the brunette pale increasingly and let her head slam against the table.

"Ah… Well-"

"GAHHHH!" Wendy and Juvia turned to face the direction of which the sound came from. Cana would've too, but she had slammed her head against the bar and was in her own little world now.

"N-Natsu, what's wrong?"

"You haven't left yet?"

"No, we thought we had to wait for you…"

"Yeah, and we have to get the _mission_ from Mira."

Natsu's mouth formed the shape of a small o. "MIRAAAA!"

It took a while, but soon she appeared. "Yes?"

"Conihafabeeer?", Cana muttered. It had been a long time since she had experienced a hangover, and she found the only way to get rid of one was more alcohol.

Mira blinked. "What was that Cana?"

"Conihafabeer?"

Everyone gave Cana a curious look. She picked her head up off the counter and looked up at everyone with blurred eyes.

"Kfewaunfkj! Jiefalknveuawefkjlfeo!" She banged her head on the table again.

"Um… Maybe you should let Lisanna go on the mission instead of Cana…"

Natsu blinked. "I think that you have a point there Wendy…"

* * *

Mira handed the made-up mission to Lisanna. She had at first intended to just give them a random mission, but realized that if she did that, then they would need to focus on two missions at the same time, which would be extremely difficult. "Good luck Sis…"

Lisanna smiled, and turned to face the rest of her group. "Let's go!"

The trio walked out of the guild, and were halfway to the Train Station when. . .

"Wendy! Wendy wait!"

Wendy slowly turned, her face already pale at what was to come. "Yes?"

As she suspected, it was Charle. "I thought you said you were going with _Cana_ and Juvia."

Wendy laughed nervously. "Haha… well you _see_…"

Lisanna stepped in front of the younger mage. "I was just pretending to be Cana so that Mira-San would let me go. Remember? I'm a transformation mage."

Charle looked at her skeptically. "Huh. Well, you sure had me fooled. I guess Wendy can go… just this once."

Wendy nodded slowly. "Yeah…"

"Ah! Juvia thinks we must go! If we do not leave now, those cows will have died from walking in their stinky poop for too long!"

Wendy and Lisanna laughed nervously, and while nodding, made their way over to the train station.

Charle watched them slowly. _And to think I was going to secretly follow them with Pantherlily… forget that, I want to save my poor nostrils!_

And with that, Charle flew back to the direction of Fairy Tail.

* * *

It took a while, but eventually they got there. Their hearts were pumping with excitement, but Juvia's pumped the fastest. It was really just _her_ that was going to be screwed if they got caught.

"Ah, Juvia-San? Do you remember the signal?"

Juvia nodded slowly. "Yes. When it begins to rain, it means that Juvia is in trouble. Juvia will keep all the rain away from the prison until then."

Lisanna nodded. "Alright. Now that we're here, we have to get you in. I'm guessing that you'd prefer to be water that Jellal-Sama is supposed to drink, not his bathing water, correct?"

Juvia blushed. She opened her mouth (most likely to say something like "Juvia only wants to be Gray-Sama's bathing water!), but Wendy interrupted her.

"I'd probably go with the drinking water. Can you transform into bird or something to scan the area?" Lisanna nodded, and transformed into a majestic eagle. She took off, leaving Juvia and Wendy alone. "Okay, so here's the plan that Natsu wanted me to remind you of. You go in there as the water, get to Jellal's cell, and immediately show him your Fairy Tail mark so that he will show you. Talk to him for a bit, but don't let him know about the plan, and remember to take in all of your surroundings too."

Juvia nodded. "And if someone happens to discover Juvia, rain will pour. Lisanna will transform herself into a fly and see what the problem is… but wait. Can't she just come with me inside?"

Wendy smiled shyly. "She should, but Mira-san told her not to leave me alone since I'm the youngest. . ."

Juvia's mouth formed a small o. Before she could respond, Lisanna returned. "Okay, I know the location. Juvia, while you make the rain and turn yourself into it, I'll fly towards the water tower and land on it. You get in there, get to the bottom, and find your way to Jellal's cell. Wendy. . . Maybe you can make a fog of some sorts? Or maybe some kind of air shield? That way I don't have to leave you alone, and no one will notice you on my back."

Both Wendy and Juvia nodded. Lisanna changed herself into a different, larger bird, and let Wendy climb on top of her back. Juvia summoned a storm, and watched as Wendy and Lisanna (covered by a thick layer of a fog-like substance) made their way towards a high tower. Juvia grabbed onto Lisanna's tail, ignoring the yelp that escaped her lips.

Lisanna seemed to understand what Juvia meant by this, and soared higher. Juvia took a deep breath, and for a while let the soothing rain wash over her. Then she forced herself upwards, letting go of Lisanna's tail, and became the rain itself.

It was difficult to remain high in the air for a while, but it seemed like Wendy was using her air powers to keep Juvia high above and trailing them.

Eventually, Lisanna slowed, and merely hovered above the tower. Wendy forced Juvia higher into the air once more, and began streaming her to the direction of the entrance of the Water Tower. She probably would've put her in there too, but then they heard a voice. "What's a bird doing up there?"

Lisanna and Wendy's eyes widened, and they shot a quick glance at Juvia. If they didn't leave now, someone would probably end up calling Animal Control or something of the sort. Juvia returned their glance, and Lisanna quickly flew away.

It was difficult for Wendy to see through the pouring rain, but through her last effort, she was able to force Juvia through the entrance, and into the large supply of water that was being stored there.

_Thank goodness._ She thought as she made her way to the bottom of the tank. She would just have to wait a while until someone unlatched the hold and the water would pour through little by little. She would just have to wait until it was dinner time.

* * *

After long hours of pointless waiting, the latch opened up. Juvia's eyes widened because she had zoned out after all the lack of action. She swam quickly towards the opening, and while doing that, tried to compress her body into the smallest drop of liquid she could muster.

Then the latch began to close.

_I'm not going to make it…_

She closed her eyes tightly, and willed the water that was there to go in the opposite direction. She heard the men, probably the prison-guards or something of the sort, discussing this

"I think we're out of water."

"That's impossible, it just rained!"

"Maybe it didn't get through the filter."

"Open the latch wider, we only have half of a glass left to fill."

Juvia forced herself out, and let some of the accompanying water follow her. "See? I told you."

Juvia closed her eyes, and hoped that they would bring her to a cell that was at least _close_ to where Jellal was being held.

"Let's start at the High-Security section today, eh? Those poor suckers. Angering the Council so much that they have to spend their entire lives locked up."

Juvia's heart raced. Surely that was where Jellal was being kept.

"You're too kind. They should go last for doing such a crime."

_No, no, no, no, no, no, no!_ she wished she could cry out and make them go up to where Jellal was being placed, just so that the risk of her being caught wouldn't be so huge.

"I guess you're right. But I mean… it _is_ the Holiday Season."

The other man rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You head to the top of the tower, in the direction of the High Security Cells. I'll stay down here, and work my way through the Loosely Guarded ones. Then we'll meet at the middle of the tower, and continue to distribute."

A single spark of hope found its way into Juvia's soul. There was a chance that maybe… maybe she would be going with the man that was heading to the High Security Facility. She couldn't really tell, since being transformed to the state of water made her vision extremely limited.

She tried to gather what she knew about the two men so far to hopefully help her out deciding which direction she was headed. The man that was on his way to the high security seemed like a kinder man, and the other man just seemed bitter.

The person that was holding her glass right now just happened to be whistling the tune of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Juvia let out a sigh of relief. Most likely, she was travelling in the right direction.

So far, she had travelled through countless corridors, and there was no sight of Jellal. This made her believe that he must be coming up soon.

Well, it made _part of her_ believe.

There was still a part of her that was screaming "Juvia will never find him! Juvia will end up letting Gray-Sama down!"

That was the part of her that she wished would shut up.

* * *

Wendy sighed dramatically. "How long do you think it'll take her to get out?"

"Hopefully a long time."

Wendy, who had previously been lying down on her back looked up. "What?"

Lisanna, who had been leaning against a large tree, seemed to register the meaning of her words. "Ah no! I didn't mean it in a bad way. I just mean that we forgot to think up an Escape Strategy for _after_ she finishes speaking to Jellal and surveying the area."

Wendy's mouth formed a small o, and she let her body fall back gently to the ground. "Right. I hope everything is running smoothly."

Lisanna simply nodded. "So do I."

* * *

Eventually, she was the last glass left for. Well, for this section at least. She still wasn't sure if the section she was currently in was High Security, or if it was the Loosely Guarded. Either way, there was still no sign of Jellal.

Juvia suddenly realized something that filled her with terror. Even if she _did_ end up finding Jellal, she had no idea what he looked like. All she knew about him was that he was sentenced to stay in jail for the rest of his life, and that the Council detested him so there was no possible hope of his release.

The man who had been holding her talked into some kind of microphone that allowed him to speak with the other prison guard. "Yes, I'm about to drop off the last glass before I head to the Middle Area."

She willed him to say something more, something that could possibly give her closure that she was headed in the right direction. Or miraculously, something that would slightly describe Jellal so she could form a mental image. But he said nothing.

Juvia heard the jingling of keys, and knew he was opening the door now

Her heart was beating fast.

She was losing control of her powers.

There was about five more minutes before she would be out of energy for good. Her magic would have worn off, and she'd be back to her regular human self.

The prison-guard stopped pushing the cart and didn't bother to bring it into the cell. Well, he had been leaving it out in the corridor everytime before he entered a room. He picked up the glass that held Juvia, and a cold sandwich.

He placed it before a man, who was shackled to a wall. The prisoner brought his eyes up to look at the man. "Why do I even bother with this? I'd rather die."

Juvia wasn't sure whether she should feel hope or dread at this statement. She wasn't even sure what Jellal's personality was like, so she couldn't tell if she was in the right place or not. If it was possible, her heart started beating faster.

The jailer simply laughed. And Juvia was able to see him spit at the prisoner's feet. As it hit the ground, the dread began to settle in on Juvia. The nice man who had suggested to go to the High Security area first didn't seem like the type of person to do that.

Though her heart kept beating at an impossibly fast pace, she willed herself to think straight. _Nonsense… he could've just been putting up a façade._

"If it were me, I would've disagreed with the Council." The prisoner gave the man a look of genuine confusion.

The prison-guard simply laughed some more. "That's right boy, you better be thankful. You may act like a big tough guy, but you're crime was so minor that it was easily overlooked. They're releasing you tomorrow."

She heard the prison-guard slam the door shut.

The sigh of relief come for the prisoner.

She willed herself to remain calm, to not panic.

She tried to imagine a route from this bottom floor, all the way up to one at the top, all while trying to maintain her illusion. The same one that was supposed to wear off in about two to three minutes.

She felt hot tears threatening to flow as she realized the hopelessness of her situation.

She was going to get caught.

She was stupid enough to have faith that the mission would run smoothly.

She hadn't thought that she might run out of magical energy, she wasn't able to summon the rain needed to call for Lisanna and Wendy's help.

She tried to fight it, she really did. But eventually, it overcame her.

Eventually, Juvia turned back into herself.

The last thing she saw was the shocked face of the prisoner. Messy blonde hair, and pale green eyes.

Then, she fainted.

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**A/N: What do you think? :D  
Read and Review!**


	6. Juvia's Mission: Part II

**A/N: Gahhh! D: I haven't been able to update in forever! _**

**I'm sorry for the wait you guys, but I hope that you enjoy! **

**I've also decided to respond **_**here**_** to the "Anonymous" Reviews, since I can't send them a PM, and I feel bad if I don't reply. XD But because I'm lazy, I'll just do it for all the "Anonymous" Reviews I got from the last chapter. ^^;**

To Shirayuki who said:

_I hope they could really release Jellal though.. This is one AWESOME story. Keep up the good work, (:_

I'd like to say, "Thank you very much! :D Heehee, I try my hardest. And I hope that it happens in the actual Fairy Tail plot-line too! I actually cried at the end of the Oracion Seis Arc. T_T"

**Warning: Not only do I NOT own Fairy Tail, I have just inserted a slightly OOC Juvia. Sort of. Not really. She just got. . . angry. **_**Really**_** angry. ;D**

**Warning No. 2: I'm not completely sure about everyone's magical capacities, so… I made some of them up. XP Don't hurt me!**

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When Juvia awoke next, she found that she was sprawled out on an extremely uncomfortable bed that made it feel as though she were sleeping on a rock. She felt a somewhat wet cloth on her forehead, and the feeling as though someone was watching her. Sure enough, on the other side of the jail cell sat a teenage boy in a wooden chair. His hair was ash blonde and tousled, and he had bright, knowing green eyes. His hair was a bit long, and got into his eyes a bit, but this just seemed to accentuate the beautiful green of his eyes. The boy's expression was merely curious, and Juvia knew that he must be around the same age as Natsu.

Juvia simply stared at him for a moment, and the boy let out a low chuckle. "Gosh, what are you staring at?" Juvia's brow furrowed just the slightest, and she opened her mouth to respond, but the boy cut her off. "And who the hell are you?"

Juvia had no idea what to say. If she was honest, she would jeopardize the mission, and if she lied, there was a chance that she'd only upset the guy, and make him aware the prison guards. Though he was probably going to sound the alarm soon anyway. . .

The boy seemed to also think through exactly what Juvia was thinking. "I have my ways of knowing if you're lying to me or not. If you do that, I'll just have to scream for help quicker than I need to."

Juvia could do nothing but pale. Realizing that her best option was to tell the truth, just not too much of it, Juvia did exactly this. "Juvia."

The boy before her raised a curious eyebrow. "Juvia?" The girl in question nodded eagerly. "My name's Henry. Now, what are you doing using magic to infiltrate my water? Huh, _Juvia_?"

Juvia furrowed her brow a bit, but knew that she could not lie to the boy. Instead, she tried to fight his question with another question. "Why have you not reported Juvia yet?"

If Henry knew that she had just avoided his question, he didn't show it. He merely shrugged and said, "I'm not sure. I guess it was the mere curiosity of it all. Now seriously. Answer my question." This Henry guy managed to pull a knife? Dagger? From seemingly nowhere, and in a flash was holding the tip of it right to Juvia's heart.

Her eyes widened considerably, and her pace that had just begun to calm itself down picked up rapidly. "W-W-What?" The boy's eyes simply narrowed, and he pushed the dagger closer to her skin, and Juvia let out a gasp as she felt it prick her skin just enough to release some of her precious blood. The boy smirked slightly, but did nothing more. "I-I-I came to help Mister Jellal."

Henry stared at her and said nothing for a moment or two. "What do you mean help Mister Jellal?"

And that's when Juvia broke out into the tragic story of Erza and Jellal. Their childhood. His corruption. Not being able to see each other for the longest time. When he finally turns back to normal, he is sentenced to remain the rest of his life in jail, never able to see Erza again.

At first, Henry just seemed skeptical. But over the long duration of the story, the pressure he put on the knife he held to her chest weakened. He frowned when he realized that she had finished. "That it? You're just trying to help a lovesick friend?" Juvia nodded slowly, and was shocked that Henry broke out into cruel, ringing laughter. "Love? You went through so much because of _love_? Love is nonexistent, a mere term that has been used once too many times, something that-"

And that's when Juvia snapped. Not even realizing what she was doing, she sat up and punched Henry square in the jaw. She didn't care that this had caused the dagger he had been holding to slash its way into her skin. She didn't even think about how in hell he had managed to sneak a dagger into a damn prison cell. Henry, out of shock more than pain, dropped the knife and touched his jaw tenderly. Yeah, that was probably going to bruise in the morning.

He glowered at Juvia, but before he could say anything, it was Juvia who spoke up. "Juvia doesn't know why you think like that. But Juvia knows that the way you think is not a good way to. Juvia knows that love exists, and Juvia is in love herself." She allowed herself to pause in which she envisioned herself being embraced tightly in Gray's arms. "Juvia will do anything and everything in her power to help Erza-Chan. Even if it means getting sent to jail herself." The boy simply guffawed at her, seeing as he had probably written her off as the type of girl that was a weakling. "Now, get the hell out of my way."

It took a while, but eventually he recovered. His cocky grin was back. "I can always call out right now you know. Alert the prison guards." Juvia glowered at him. And then she realized something that she hadn't realized before. Henry, though now arrogant, had allowed her rest. She was awake now, had enough energy to punch him pretty hard. Meaning that she had energy. Enough energy so that she wouldn't faint. Enough energy to probably use _magic_. She hid her grin behind a cleverly disguised cough.

"You wouldn't do wouldn't." Henry blinked at her words, as though he was about to consider this, but then shook his head quickly.

"No way! No way in hell! G-" Juvia cut him off by pointing her opened palm at the wet rag he had placed on her forehead, and quickly whipping what little was left to his abdomen, using all the force she could muster. He doubled over, face red, and Juvia took this as an opportunity to gag him with the water that she had just whipped him with. He could still breath, he was just incapable of making any noise whatsoever.

Juvia let the huge grin appear onto her face. And threw her hands up into the air. Juvia could hear the wind blowing, its howl echoing loudly in the now quiet prison cell. She could practically feel the water condensing above her in massive, gray clouds, soon to be overwhelmed so badly that they would fall. Fall as rain. She concentrated harder until she heard it. BOOM!

Juvia smirked. Alright, so she was desperately lost and had no current hope of getting out of her predicament. She had yet to locate Jellal, and she was stuck with an a arrogant bastard. But so what? She was almost positive that Wendy and Lisanna heard the loud, shrieking of the wind. She was sure that they were planning her rescue mission right at that instant. Juvia caught the eye of Henry, whose expression was now terrified, shocked, and full of wonder. Scowling, Juvia kicked him in his stomach. _Hard_. She smiled as she saw the agony etched on her face.

"Take that you bitch."

* * *

Lisanna looked up, expression grim. _Damn. This is one storm. . . Could it possibly be. . .?_

"Lisanna-San. Do you think that this Juvia's signal?", Lisanna turned to look at the short brunette a few feet away from her. Wendy stood in the center of the clearing they had found, and her dark hair was whipping around, and her back was turned to Lisanna. Lisanna shifted uncomfortably in her position leaning against the tall tree, but made no move to respond to the young Dragon-Slayer. Abruptly, Wendy twisted her neck to the left, looking over her shoulder to face the older mage. Lisanna was shocked to see a grimace that matched her own on Wendy's features. Yet, she still saw the frantic worry in Wendy's eyes. _She's nervous too._

Slowly, Lisanna nodded and stood up. "Yeah. Let's go."

* * *

Juvia genuinely had no idea where she was going, or what she was planning to do. All she knew was that she was running. Hard. Fast. Stealthily. Her lungs ached with the lack of oxygen she was taking in, but Juvia merely fought the urge to breathe. If she stopped, or took a breath too loudly at the wrong time, it could possibly be her end.

She had left that Henry guy bound and gagged in a corner of his cell. A perfect place so that any passing guard wouldn't be able to tell that anything was wrong. Of course, by tomorrow morning they would find him, and he knows what that imbecile would end up telling them. Juvia inwardly cursed herself for sharing so much information with the boy. If he spilled the beans, the Council would be sure to blame Fairy Tail without a second thought, and it would all be her fault.

Using her remaining strength, she did all in her power to force the thoughts away, even though they seemed to keep on coming. _Focus on finding Jellal. Focus on finding escape._

Juvia continued her race down the corridor, willing her footfalls to remain as silent as remotely possible. It was dark, her only light the dim glow of the torches that lighted the hallways and staircases. The same torches that seemed like they were soon to snuff themselves out. Juvia inwardly cursed at herself more for not punching Henry's lights out sooner. She had wasted valuable time.

Still, she dashed toward staircase number one. If her gut feeling was correct, there was only two floors. Still. . . when she got there how would she find Jellal without notifying the guards? She shook the thought away, threw open the door and bounded up the stairs, sub-consciously hearing the BOOM! BOOM! of the thunder outside the dull prison walls.

* * *

Lisanna wasted no time plotting Juvia's rescue. Actually, scratch that. She wasn't even sure if Juvia _needed_ to be rescued, but if she did, Lisanna had no plan up her sleeve whatsoever. Nope, she had left that task to Wendy, which probably wasn't the smartest move. But right now, Lisanna had to focus all of her intelligence on the task at hand. Infiltrating the prison, locating Juvia, and finding out what the deal was. At least, that was what they had agreed on at the start of the mission. Lisanna still had no idea how on Earth she was going to do that.

Of course, she had one part of that plan settled. She had transformed herself into a housefly, and was currently buzzing over towards the jailhouse. And yet, it was still difficult. Why? Because none of the three had taken into consideration the fact that if she was supposed to come in as a _fly_ to help Juvia during a _thunderstorm_ (which of course, just _happened_ to be their signal), then the winds and precipitation around her would make Lisanna's flying extremely difficult.

_Dammit._

_

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**A/N: Sooo. . . Did you likey? ;D  
Review and tell me what you thought! :D**

**As a side-note, let's see what current couples/triangles we have **_**SO FAR**_**.**

**Lisannax****Natsu****xLucy  
Lucyx****Gray****xCanaxJuvia  
Grayx****Erza****xJellal**

**SO FAR those are the main couplings. I'm also planning to throw in a bit of:**

**Mirax****Gajeel****xLevi  
GrayxLokex****Lucy****xNatsuxINSERT SOMEONE HERE. XD**

**I just tried to mash that all together, but it didn't really work. XP  
Any other triangles you want me to add? Or couplings? Or like. . . love hexagons? XD  
Like I said, review to tell me what you thought! :D**

**Haha, NEXT TIME: Part III of Juvia's mission. How will it go for her? Will Lisanna get there in time? Will Juvia be able to find Jellal before its all over, or will she run out of time? Or (if worse comes to worse) will she even be **_**caught**_**? Find out next time! :D**


	7. Juvia's Mission: Part III

**A/N: ***hands everyone a rock* Okay, its official. You are all officially allowed to stone me to death.

I know, I know. I haven't updated in a while. Since, what? Last month. o_o And the fact that this month is almost over isn't really helping either. I like to blame the fact that I ended up giving Manga up for Lent, so I turned to Kingdom Hearts for entertainment, and then began writing KH fanfiction instead of updating. *is shot*

. . . Err. . . Attempted super long chapter for forgiveness? orz

Okay, okay. Enough with the chit-chat. Here we go, Juvia's Mission: Part III!

**P.S**. I was reading back, and I found a screw up in "Juvia's Mission: Part I" Its not that noticeable, but its still bothering me. So if anyone was able to catch it, I'm super sorry, and I shall somehow explain how it was possible in the next chapter! I swear!

**P.P.S. **For those of you that might be curious, I had said that Henry was shackled to a wall, but in "Juvia's Mission: Part II", he's walking freely around his jail cell and "helping her out". And I never said that the jailer unlocked him, because I specifically said that Juvia heard the jail cell's door slam! D: *dies* So again, I'm sorry. o_o

**Special thanks to:** ,eelgirl13, Mooncry, and Luna Lumiini for reviewing the last chapter. **Your reviews are what inspire me to write!**

**Disclaimer:**** I do NOT own Fairy Tail. I wish I did though, it would totally make my day. ;D**

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Juvia continued her dash up the staircases, inwardly cringing at every boom of the thunder outside, almost always mistaking it as the loud footfalls as she climbed the stairs.

She couldn't help but admit it. She was paranoid.

And _because_ she was paranoid, she had begun to realize _more_ flaws in her part of the plan.

Again, she had no idea what Jellal looked like, how he acted. How was she supposed to know which prisoner he was? Someone could always _pretend_ to be Jellal in hopes of being freed.

What if she ended up going inside a jail-cell that _didn't_ have Jellal in it? What if the person inside was like. . . a rapist or something? !

And plus, she couldn't _possibly_ check out every jail cell on the entire floor! She'd easily run out of energy!

And worse of all, what if one of the prisoners caught sight of her while she was running past and started yelling, and made all the other prisoners start yelling too? That was _bound_ to attract the attention of one of the guards!

She bit her lip hard, immune to noticing the blood that was slowly trickling out. And Wendy and Lisanna. She had called for their help, but it would take _forever_ for them to find her in the agonizingly long corridors and different floors. She was putting them in a lot of danger too.

Juvia wished she could sigh dramatically at that moment, but she was too nervous to let something so _loud_ escape her lips.

Before long, Juvia found herself at her location. _The third floor_. She couldn't stop the obnoxiously loud beating of her heart, but tried her best to stifle the loud gasps she wanted to take for air, and the panting her body longed to do because of her run.

When she had convinced herself that there was no possible way for her to calm her body down any more, she cautiously made her first step. Looking around nervously, she slowly made her second.

And her third.

And her fourth.

And then she stopped, the deafening beat of her heart filling her ears. _I hope no one can hear that. . . _

Realizing that the first jail cell was coming up on her left didn't exactly help her situation either. She gulped, as quietly as she could mange, and tried her best to come up with the best course of action.

_Okay, turning into water is a must. It'll ensure that nobody becomes too suspicious of Juvia. . ._

As if to offer herself some consolation, she stealthily managed to create several puddles of water on the long corridor's floor. She allowed herself to smile, just a little bit. _There._

_But how will Juvia find out which one is Jellal?_ Just like that, the smile was wiped off her face. She silently twiddled her thumbs in an attempt to speed up her thinking process. And then it hit her.

_Maybe Juvia can just whisper in her water form, and make them think that they are imagining things!_, Juvia thought merrily. It seemed like a pretty good idea, and since she couldn't think of anything better, she decided to implement it.

In one swift second, she transformed herself into a puddle, and inch by inch made her way down the corridor before stopping at the first cell. Noticing that there was one directly opposite of it, Juvia had another bright idea. _Perhaps Juvia can 'kill two birds with one stone. . .'_

She couldn't help but smile at her sudden burst of intelligence, which quickly led to a burst of confidence.

Without thinking, she said, "Excuse me, but are you Mister Jellal?"

Instantaneously, her eyes widened, realizing that based on the loud shuffling from practically every jail cell in the corridor, she had probably said that too loudly. A moment later, she also realized that somebody's "imagination" was not likely to say that.

"Hey, who's there?"

"Are ya talking to me?"

"Who the hell is Jellal?"

In a matter of seconds, Juvia's newfound confidence shattered. _Oh no, they're being too loud! What to do, what to do? !_

As if pondering the question, she paused. _Surely the prison guards are going to come soon to check this out, and then they'll see all the puddles. And the puddles will make them suspicious and then they will find Juvia! And then they'll blame Fairy Tail and Gray-Sama and Natsu-San, and then the mission will be a failure, all because of Juvia and-_

A sudden loud banging on the prison cell's bars interrupted Juvia from her thoughts.

"You heard it too? !"

"Then there must be someone here! Someone's coming to break us out!"

"Yeah, that must be it! Hey, over here!"

"No, me first!"

Fear consuming her, Juvia didn't even realize that she had just changed out of her water form.

* * *

_Alright, that's it. _Lisanna's brows furrowed as she swiftly changed herself into an eagle of some sort. No one had probably seen the transformation because of the pouring rain, which was the good side. The bad side was that someone was bound to see her eventually, and she had no idea if her current species of eagle was native around these parts.

Oh, and the fact that an eagle was _definitely_ going to be noticed swooping into a prison was also something to consider.

With one quick shake of her head, Lisanna forced all those thoughts away from her mind. _Don't think about all the dangers. Focus on getting in there and finding Juvia!_

Squinting slightly, Lisanna attempted to gather information about her surroundings, but of course it wasn't easy because of the intensity of the storm. _Geez, Juvia's really outdone herself this time. . . _

There were several tall pine trees surrounding her on all sides, which probably signified that this forest was pretty old. From her previous trip to the prison, she also knew that it lay in the heart of the forest, something that wasn't too good for a prison. It would be easy for a runaway prisoner to hide in the forest. _That's something I definitely need to share with Natsu_, she couldn't help but think smugly.

Before she knew it, the high metal fences of the prison came into view. Lightning flashed menacingly, making the barbed wire that surrounded the prison seem even deadlier. Lisanna wasn't intimidated at all by it though, and instead switched her focus to her current route. It was only a mile or two now.

The grimace settled back on her face when she realized that it meant that she would most likely have to make the risky change in a matter of minutes. She closed her eyes, just for a second, to help her formulate the best way to do this.

When she realized the simpleness of the situation, she forced herself to stifle her giggle. _Duhhh, just make it look like you're landing in one of the tall pines, and make the quick change into the housefly. It's not like they're going to put all their attention onto whether or not an eagle comes out of a tree._ She allowed a small smile to grace her lips.

With renewed hope, Lisanna increased her speed towards one of the pines that she had earlier pinpointed as one of the closest to the prison. She had decided that it might attract more attention if she made the change in the closest pine, and as Mira had told her before, "Better safe than sorry."

She feinted her landing in the tree before making her switch, barely noticing the struggle it was to fly. _Don't worry Juvia, I'm coming._

_

* * *

_

"Oooooh, what a pretty little lady!"

"Did you come here looking for a new man? I can give you all you want, and _more._"

"What are you talking about? I'm the sexiest out of all of us! She's bound to pick me!"

"_Sexy_? What are you talking about? You're probably the fattest one out of all of us!"

Finally realizing what she had unintentionally done, she looked around, mouth agape. All the prisoners in the corridor were currently shaking against their prison bars, yelling at her to break them out. Shocked, Juvia had yet to make any move. That is, until something dawned on her.

The more they yell, the more curious and loud the other corridors were likely to get.

Eyes wide with surprise and confusion, Juvia did the only thing that her brain could manage to tell her.

_Run._

And that was just what she did. For those moments while she ran, her mind seemed to be empty of all thoughts, warnings, precautions, and fears. She focused all her energy into running, not even realizing how vain the attempt of escape was. But the realization still occurred somewhere in the far recesses of her mind.

_It's too late. You're going to get caught._

And eventually, her running was forced to come to an end. For in front of her seemed to be a large. . . _safe_-like room. It was large, and metallically black. So metallic, that Juvia was able to make out a slightly distorted figure of herself in front of her. All along the right side of the door was a column of keyholes, all of varied sizes.

But in that particular moment, none of that had registered to her. In that moment, she only saw the place as a sanctuary.

Quickly using the last of her magic and stamina to turn herself into her water form once more, she crawled her way up into one of the keyholes and forced her way through.

As she fell towards the ground, she ran out of magical power, turning herself back into a human and stopping the storm outside. She couldn't help but gasp as her body impacted the cold, rough surface below her. Juvia openly let herself scramble for air, as she closed her eyes and lay her body out on the floor.

When she opened her eyes, the pitch-blackness of the room hit her as did the chilly air. And for some reason, it was wet. Timidly, Juvia raised her hand and touched her face gently. She was. . . _crying_. Juvia attempted to choke back the sobs that she hadn't even realized were coming from her. _Why am I. . . crying?_

It was then that it hit her. She had a right to cry. They were simply tears of stress. _It's alright. . . Juvia is safe now._

Half-heartedly, she raised her arm to wipe the moisture off her face, before a sudden light seemed to engulf the room. Juvia's eyes widened, and she scrambled to pick herself up into a fighting position before a sudden blast of wind knocked her into one of the walls behind her. She gasped at the sudden attack, and her eyes darted around the now bright room, desperately looking for some sort of explanation.

That is, until the sudden heat from behind her made her scream. She arched her back in an attempt to get away from the piercing heat, but it was useless. The wind seemed to still be holding her back. She continued to struggle for an explanation before it became evident to her. _The light. . . the heat. . . This is fire magic._

In the next instant, the fire disappeared, and Juvia fell to the ground. Gingerly, she rubbed the burns on her back, cringing from the sting of pain.

She couldn't help but whimper.

As sudden as the magic appeared did it return. This time, in the form of a small ball of fire that illuminated a young man's face. His eyes were dark, yet surprised and sorry. There was an intricate black tattoo on his right eye, and his expression held one of confusion. A shock of bright blue hair was messily covering parts of his face.

"Who. . . Who are you?"

* * *

**A/N: GAHHH! I AM OFFICIALLY SUPER PROUD OF MYSELF! ***fist pumps*

Haha, anyway please **review**! They **inspire me to write!**


	8. Juvia's Mission: Part IV

**A/N: Yay! :D I feel good about updating slightly more frequently. I hope it's not too far apart from the last chapter. I updated like. . . *checks* Oh. It is kinda late. -_-;**

**Anywho, I'd like to thank: ****Lord Naruto, Song-Ai, and Miyame-Chan**** for reviewing. :D**

**To Song-Ai**: Thanks for the review! :D And haha, don't worry. I won't desert this story. I honestly think it's one of my most popular! And that next chapter? Well, if you're reading this, then you're about to read the new chapter too. XD

**All you people that subscribe and add to favorites are cool too! :D . . . I just love you more if you review. ;D**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Fairy Tail, sweeties. ;)**

* * *

As Lisanna carefully maneuvered her way through the metal bars of the prison, she couldn't help but be confused as to why the rain had suddenly stopped. It could mean several different things, but she wasn't sure which one.

_Possibility One:_ _Juvia was able to get out of her predicament and is trying to call off the reinforcements. _

_Possibility Two: Juvia still needs my help, but decided to call off the storm so that she could focus all her magic on the task at hand._

_Possibility Three: Juvia was caught, and they had killed her._

Lisanna couldn't help but grimace. She was personally hoping that the case was possibility one, but with the difficulty of their mission, she knew that that was probably not the case.

_Don't think about that now, focus on helping Juvia._

With a shake of her head, Lisanna effectively tossed the mere thought away.

And with _that_ temporarily out of her head, Lisanna's attention became focused elsewhere.

_I'm running out of magical energy. . . _The grimace took place on her face once more. She knew that the mission would become even _more_ difficult if she wasn't able to use her magic. But if she used up all her magic, then she would faint. And she would get caught for sure.

Deciding to pick the lesser of the two evils, she switched to her normal human form. Based on her surroundings, Lisanna decided to conclude that she had probably flew into the second floor of the building. In the distance, she could see a single staircase heading up, and another one heading down. Plus when she was outside, she could easily tell that the building only had three different levels to it.

_But which direction leads to Juvia?_

Stealthily, she made her way to the staircases, thanking the heavens that practically all of the prisoners were too asleep to notice her. Lisanna bit her lip, unable to decide which direction she should head in. She could detect different levels of noise coming from the two different levels, but it wasn't until she made out the loud yelling that she made her decision.

After muttering a quick prayer for good luck, Lisanna dashed down the stairs.

* * *

"I. . .I am. . . " Juvia couldn't help but bite her lip. Last time she had trusted somebody with the reality of her mission, they ended up being a jerk. But this guy definitely seemed different. His curious gaze seemed entirely sincere, and there was this kind of patient aura surrounding them. With a loud gulp, Juvia slowly made her response, "Juvia."

He nodded carefully, his eyes drifting from her and towards a corner of the room as though he were deep in thought. "I see. What are you doing here?"

Juvia sighed. She might as well just tell the truth now, right? "Juvia came here. . . looking for someone. To help a friend."

His gaze immediately shifted back to her, an eyebrow raised in mere curiosity. "Who's this someone?"

She looked down, the nerves starting to get to her. Quietly, she murmured, "His name is Jellal."

The man's eyebrow lowered itself, and he nodded. He turned away from her, taking a majority of the little ball of light with him. "I'm sorry for. . . hurting you."

She gulped before shaking her head. "No. It's alright. Juvia is fine."

He nodded again, a quick jerking of his head. "You're a water mage, aren't you? Try using your water magic on your back. It should help the pain out. At least a little."

She forced a light smile. "If Juvia could, she would. But Juvia is out of energy."

He turned to face her, a look of concern on his features. "Oh, right. That makes sense. It must've taken a lot to get in here." Juvia nodded, her attention now focused on staring at her own shoes. But the sudden splash of cold caused her to gasp in shock. She slowly looked up, and found that the prisoner's right hand was now raised, controlling the water that was spreading itself on her back.

"You. . .You are a water mage, too?" As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she couldn't help but regret it. Well, not really. She just realized how stupid it was. But as the same time, she was exceedingly confused. He was obviously a fire and wind mage too, wasn't he? Her brows furrowed in all the confusion.

He chuckled, the sound low and deep in his throat. "I guess you could say that."

_How can a person so kind be trapped in a cell as harsh as this one?_

"So, why is it so important for you to find this Jellal guy?"

Feeling like she should trust the man in front of her, she quickly launched into the story she had told Henry. She had managed to sit down while talking animatedly, keeping her head down to save her some energy. When she finally finished, she looked up to meet her caretaker's gaze. His expression was still mostly blank, but she could see a little bit of confusion on his face.

"What. . . what was the name of your friend again?"

"Hm? Oh, Erza-chan!"

As she said the name, his face began to pale. "Er. . .za?"

Juvia blinked, obviously confused as to why he was suddenly acting so strange. "Er. . . za. Er. . . za. Er. . . za. Er. . .za. . . Erza. . ." She blinked again in shock when she realized that the soothing water on her back had disappeared and when she noticed the ball of light in the palm of his hand flickering madly.

"Mister. . . Mister. . ." She scrambled for a name before realizing that he hadn't offered one. "A-A-Are you okay?"

The man nodded slowly, face still pale, before he sat down on his bed and buried his face in his hands, the ball of light now floating carefully by his head. He didn't answer Juvia, but she could still make out his barely audible murmurs of, "Er. . .za. Er. . . za. Erza. . ." Eventually he raised his head and looked at her once more. "Who. . . Who. . . Are you?"

She blinked at his question. Hadn't he already asked this question? "I already told you, I am Juvi-"

He quickly rose off of his bed, eyes flashing, and the ball of light now flickering crazily. "I meant your affiliation!"

Carefully, Juvia said, "Juvia is from Fairy Tail. . ."

His eyes widened considerably, before he fell back onto his bed, the ball of light now very faint. He stared blankly at what Juvia saw as nothing, before his gaze slowly met hers. "Why. . . Who. . . Sent you?" His voice was quiet now, and Juvia had to strain her ears to catch it.

Nervously, Juvia responded, "N-N-Natsu-san."

If it was possible, his eyes widened even more. "Na. . .tsu?"

Juvia nodded slowly, curiosity beginning to consume her. Why was he acting so strange? "Now. . . answer me. . . Who are _you_?"

The man looked away from her, Juvia finally realizing that he was trembling. His expression still held one of shock, and his aura gave off the fact he seemed. . . scared.

"I am Jellal."

* * *

Lisanna dashed down the stairs, hiding in the shadows while stealthily making her way towards the sound. Suddenly, it became quiet. Now confused, she slightly edged closer to the edge of the wall, before peering around it… and quickly pulling her head back. Men with long weapons and prison-guard attire dashed past her, and towards the staircases. Lisanna could feel her heart racing as the adrenaline pulsed through her veins. She was so close to being caught…

But if they were heading somewhere with loaded guns and other weapons, it probably meant that they had sensed a disturbance. And if they sent a disturbance, then it was most likely…

Juvia.

Her eyes widened in sudden realization. She had to find her now, it no longer mattered about their mission. Their _safety_ was in her hands. It didn't matter whether or not Juvia could gather information about Jellal's whereabouts anymore. It mattered that they got out safely without anyone realizing that Fairy Tail had broken into a prison.

Lisanna bit her lip in thought, before she decided to take the risk. She turned into a fly again, and flew in the direction of the prison guards. It was her only hope to reach Juvia before they did.

* * *

**A/N: Ah, I'm going to have to start there. XP I'm not really feeling it right now, so I guess this is just… extremely short? *dies* Review please! They're inspiration. A_A**


	9. Juvia's Mission: Part V

**A Wishful Thought (A Note From The Author): **Oh man. I'm sorry for the crappy shortness of the last chapter. D: But here is my attempted redemption? XD So yes. This chapter will be **the conclusion of the arc.** :') I want to say something really badly, but it'll spoil what happens in this chapter, so I'm just going to shut up. And I wanted to get this out around my **birthday as a present to you guys**! XD Aren't you proud of me? **My birthday isn't actually until July 6**, but I figured it would be nice to update a bit earlier.

Oh, but before I do that! XD **THANK YOU FOR ALL THE REVIEWS, AND I'M SORRY FOR MY LAZINESS, AND THAT I DIDN'T REPLY TO ALL OF THEM. ****O_O**; *dies* I lurf you guys? XP

**Since they receive more credit, those people are: Kaze no Uchiha, JustPikachu, Hayate x Hinagiku Fan, randomstuff1900, miyame-chan, eelgirl13, SnowCrystals, racerabbit, Riniel von Lazuard, and Thegirlwhowatchstars. YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!**

Oh! And I'd also like to introduce you all to my new **beta** for this story, **Ree-Vance**_. :)_

Ehem.** I DO NOT OWN FAIRY TAIL**. There, ya happy? ;D

* * *

It was like in that one second, Juvia's heart just stopped beating. She couldn't help it. The randomness was too much to bear. Jellal simply stared at her, absolutely no expression on his face, not realizing how important it was for her to find him. Didn't he just hear her super long speech? It was imperative that he come with her, to make Erza happy!

And so, Juvia talked slowly, almost as though she was explaining something to a young child, "Jellal-San, you have to come back with Juvia. . ."

Gradually, his eyes widened, and he began to back away from her, eyes setting themselves downcast. "No. . .I can't leave. They contain me here. . . . they protect the others from me. I can't leave. . . I. . .I . . . . I'm a monster. . . ."

Juvia blinked. What just happened? "Jellal, you don't understand. . . You hav-" She cut herself off as she involuntarily flinched at his sudden clenched hand.

"_I_. . . . Don't understand?" He brought his gaze to look at her, the light from the floating sphere by his head illuminating his features ghoulishly, making the anger on his face look more menacing than before. "I think it seems that. . . . _you_ don't understand."

Juvia's eyes widened as she dodged the ball of light that he sent flying at her, staring in shock at the wall that it hit, the one which she didn't even realize had had words inscribed on it because her back had been to it the whole time. As the light burst into flames, licking the walls with their orange glow, Juvia scanned the walls, reading the eerie messages, and attempting to interpret the strange symbols scrawled onto it.

_The knife pierces no more._

_The ice will be haunted by the water itself._

_The angel fallen from the sky, will abandon all that she owns to save the sinner from hell._

_The flames will consume the fairy from the inside._

_The fairy will lose its wings, and suffer._

Juvia couldn't help but shiver at the cryptic words. What exactly did any of this mean? Was it random gibberish, or was it a strange proposal of the future? Though she hated to admit it, Juvia knew that the latter was probably true. Yet, why were these words inscribed here? Did Jellal really write them? And by fairy, he couldn't possibly mean. . .

Slowly, she forced herself to meet Jellal's gaze again. His expression was unreadable, but nonetheless, it creeped her out. "You. . . need to. . . leave. _Now._" He himself was shaking, and his words were beginning to come out as rasps. The dim lighting made it eerie; the only light source in the room being the flames that continued to lick the graphics on the wall, making his face looked even more ghastly then it previously had. But it was obvious that the flames weren't exactly flames, or else the prison wall itself would have burned down by now. "Leave. . . Leave. . . _Hurry. . ."_

Thoughts and decisions began to plague her mind. What was she supposed to do? Part of her begged her to listen to Jellal's warning, but another part of her insisted that she continue to try and gather information to bring back to Natsu if she couldn't convince Jellal to escape with her now.

Juvia wished she had made her decision quicker.

It seemed as though Jellal had deemed that she was refusing to leave, and suddenly it was like all the saneness he had left in his body oozed out, leaving only little fragments of sanity and bitter nothingness. With a hollow yell, he flung himself at Juvia his hands illuminated with the glow of magic. What kind, Juvia hoped she didn't have to find out.

* * *

Lisanna flew as fast as her little wings would take her. But as a fly, it was quite the difficult thing to do.

Eventually, she caught up to the guards that were on the third floor, her wings beginning to ache, and her heart thumping desperately within her chest. She was already beginning to feel dazed which symbolized that soon she would be out of magical energy. Part of her knew that she should probably stop using magic. But the other, _larger_ part of her insisted that Juvia was more important than saving her magical energy.

As she flew by, her eyes scanned every crook and nanny of the corridor. Lisanna tried to tune out the continuous yelling of the prisoners, and the angry shouts from the prison guards, but it was all no use. It was impossible to get rid of all the noise.

It took a while, but soon she had reached the end of the third floor. And still, there was no sign of Juvia _whatsoever_. A frown tugged at Lisanna's lips, but she did nothing.

She raked her brain for some possible explanation to it all, but a sudden BOOM! interrupted her thoughts. She blinked in confusion, but as she looked at the prisoners nearby, it seemed like they hadn't heard a thing.

BOOM! Her acute fly ears automatically tuned in to the noise, and she soon realized that the sound was extremely faint. She quietly waited for it to happen again, so she could possibly tell where the noise was coming from.

BOOM! Lisanna's eyes instantly turned her body to face what she had originally thought was a wall, but what she now realized seemed to be a safe like door. Only somewhat surprised but mostly suspicious, Lisanna quickly scanned her eyes over the door, desperately looking for an entrance. Spotting a small keyhole, she flew towards it, and forced herself through.

* * *

A soft thud was what ended up breaking Jellal's sudden fury to Juvia's surprise.

The young man collapsed to the floor, throwing his head into his arms, pulling at his hair and screaming. "Stop it! Stop it! _STOP IT!_" Juvia stared at him in shock, not knowing what to do. Jellal then moved to scratching away at his face desperately.

For a second, Juvia remembered the thud she had heard. The one that had shaken Jellal out of his reverie. Now somewhat curious, Juvia slowly made her way over to the body that seemed to come out of nowhere that was spread out in an exhausted heap on the cold jail floor. But it didn't take long for the blue haired mage to recognize the body that was now so close to her.

"Lisanna! ?"

The white-haired woman before her sighed with relief. "Juvia. . . you. . ."

"Make it stop. . . MAKE IT STOP!"

Lisanna's eyes widened with a mixture of worry and fright and even a little bit of curiosity, and she struggled to get up so that she could get a better view of the man huddled miserably in the corner. But Juvia held her down before she could see Jellal having a breakdown. "W-We need to get out of here. . . quickly!"

They didn't have time though, as Jellal flung himself at the two women.

Juvia's eyes widened as she grabbed Lisanna, and narrowly dodged Jellal's blow. His right fist was covered in angry, black flames, while his left fist was jagged with the sharp spikes of ice. His eyes were pure, blank darkness now, and the mere sight of it made Juvia shiver.

"J-Juvia! What's going—"

Juvia simply shook her head, signaling Lisanna to stop talking, and managed to create a thin wall of water in an attempt to block the blow of Jellal's left fist. It didn't exactly work since Jellal's fist had easily penetrated through the wall, and Juvia couldn't stop herself from squeaking.

_This isn't good. . . I still haven't regained enough magical energy to put up a good enough fight against this guy. . ._

The spiked ice that covered Jellal's hand burst into smaller, even sharper, pieces, and homed their way to both Juvia and Lisanna.

Their eyes simultaneously widened, and Lisanna wiggled free of Juvia's grip so that she could dodge better. Juvia realized this too, and while Lisanna dodged to the right, Juvia dodged to the left. Though they managed to dodge most of the blows, each of them had a few of the points lodged into the arms and sides.

Lisanna winced as she pulled one out. They were splinter like, and though each shard was small, it hurt like hell.

Juvia noticed this too, but didn't have time to try and get them out, for Jellal had already launched a black ball of intense heat in her direction. Juvia's eyes widened in shock, but luckily, she still had her quick reflexes on her side. She managed to rush some water in the direction of the sphere of fire. She knew that though water should dissipate the flames, Jellal's fire was probably extremely strong. Meaning that it would only weaken the power slightly.

But she didn't expect the fire to go through it like it was nothing.

Lisanna, who had moved to look at Juvia as soon as she heard the sounds of fire being made, shrieked in a mixture of both shock and surprise as a large ball of fire met the water mage's body.

The flames licked Juvia's skin, and she couldn't stop the piercing scream from erupting through the air. The scorching heat ate away at her skin, at her hair, at her eyes. The pain was insufferably immense, and Juvia was unable to think straight. She immediately fell to the floor, scratching at the flames as though that would make them disappear, but it seemed to only fuel the flames more.

"Juvia! Your water!"

Lisanna's words were barely heard over Juvia's screams of anguish, but some part of the water mage understood what she meant. In a desperate attempt to douse the flames, Juvia coated herself in cool water. She heard the hiss of the flames as they slowly began to disappear, but Juvia still couldn't stop herself from wincing from her severe burns. What was even worse was the fact that she wasn't able to maintain her water state for long with the lack of her magical energy, and the water disappeared after a few, mere seconds.

Thankfully, only a few of the flames had reappeared, and Juvia had regained some amount of her mind back to figure out a way to get rid of them.

Lisanna, knowing that Juvia would need some time to recuperate, had transformed into a jaguar and launched herself at Jellal, hoping to catch him by surprise. Jellal was unfazed however, and quickly turned to Lisanna, managing to pick her up while she tackled him and flinging her to the wall of the jail cell.

She whimpered, white spots beginning to invade her vision. She was immediately tossed out of her transformation, and it was a struggle for her to even stand. Lisanna felt dizzy, but nevertheless forced herself over towards Jellal, blindly swinging blows at him.

All of these blows were easily blocked by him, and she didn't even realize that he had kicked her in the stomach until she felt her head smash against the wall once more.

The pain was blinding.

Lisanna's eyelids flickered as she resisted the urge to go unconscious. She felt the feeling begin to overtake her, but she knew that she needed to remain awake if she was to save Juvia and get them out of here. Or if worse came to worse. . . To just get Juvia out.

Another piercing scream echoed throughout the jail cell, and the high pitch of it was enough to make Lisanna more alert. The pain in her head was beginning to go away, but she could feel the acute pains in her side from Jellal's shards of ice. She hadn't managed to remove most of them, and now that she had moved a lot, the pain had intensified. Still, Lisanna looked up in the direction of the scream, and shrieked when she saw Jellal's firm grip around Juvia's neck. The water mage had finally gotten rid of the flames that were on her, and was struggling to escape Jellal's grasp. Her face was turning a sickening shade of purple, and the sight itself was enough for Lisanna to feel a rush of adrenaline pulse through her veins.

The burst of adrenaline was enough to give her more magical energy. . . Enough to put up a decent distraction.

With a menacing growl, Lisanna transformed into a puma, and eagerly pounced onto Jellal's back. Surprised by the sudden weight, Jellal released his hold on Juvia. He had thought that Lisanna had passed out, and wasn't expecting her to resist going into an unconscious state.

With a frustrated yell, he shot a sphere of what seemed like pure darkness in her direction. Using her quick reflexes, Lisanna managed to dodge it while she left a long, deep scratch on Jellal's face.

Jellal let out a small hiss in pain, but it was quickly replaced with anger and a need to cause pain.

Juvia on the other hand was rubbing her throat gingerly, whimpering softly from the lasting effects of Jellal's grip on her neck, and the pulsating pain of the shards of ice that were still lodged in her side, not to mention the severe throbbing of all the burns that coated her skin.

She managed to look up at Jellal and Lisanna avidly fighting, and couldn't stop herself from feeling confused.

_Juvia doesn't understand. . . Jellal-Sama was so nice to Juvia before. . . But when Juvia asked him to leave, he suddenly got so angry. . ._

She couldn't stop a tear from slipping out of her eye. _It's all Juvia's fault. . . If Juvia had just left when he said to leave, then maybe Juvia and Lisanna wouldn't be in this mess. . . _

"JUVIA! RUN!"

Juvia blinked at Lisanna's words, not believing what she was hearing. Lisanna was constantly changing into different animals, some that the water mage had never seen before in her life. Lisanna and Jellal were fighting each other mercilessly though, and Juvia felt a sharp pang of guilt for not doing more to help.

"I'LL DISTRACT HIM! YOU HAVE TO FIND WENDY AND LEAVE!"

Jellal roared angrily at her words, and seemed to suddenly fight with more strength and agility. Juvia's eyes were wide, and she slowly shook her head. She opened her mouth to say, _"No! Juvia won't leave without you!"_, but all that came out was a hoarse croak.

It was then that Juvia realized that even if she _wanted_ to listen to Lisanna and make her leave, she couldn't. She just didn't have the energy to.

Lisanna seemed to realize this too. She transformed herself back into human form, and performed a series of flips towards the water mage. Somehow, she had managed to pin Jellal down with some of his own shards of ice. Of course, it was nothing that was too difficult to escape from. Lisanna stopped in front of Juvia, and Juvia couldn't help but let even more tears leak out of her eyes.

Lisanna's pure, silky white hair was now matted and coated with blood. Her innocent face was bruised and scarred, and her clothes were tattered. Through the holes, Juvia could see several more bruises and a whole lot of blood flowing from her sides, arms, and shoulders. Her eyes were determined, but at the same time they held an immense amount of sadness. The younger mage reached out to embrace Juvia in a hug, and the water mage wasn't too surprised when she felt both herself and Lisanna wince.

But she _was_ surprised when she felt a surge of energy course through her, waking her up, and making her more aware of everything that was happening. Juvia gasped as she realized what it was.

Lisanna's magical energy.

"Juvia, please. . . You have to get out of here. Find Wendy, and escape. . . You have to tell. . . Tell Natsu. . ." The white-haired mage's voice cracked at the name of her longtime friend, and tears began to fall from her eyes. "I-I don't know what will happen to me, but you have to promise that you'll make it back! Tell Mira and Elfman that I love them, and that I'm sorry that I have to go away again when I just got back!" She was yelling now, though she probably didn't realize it. Her eyes were shut as though it would help her get through this challenging time. "And Natsu. . .Oh, God. . . Tell Natsu that I lo—"

Lisanna was cut off as she felt a sharp, pointed object slice down her back. She turned in fright to see Jellal slowly walking towards both her and Juvia, his eyes still empty and devoid of emotion. He was controlling another shard of ice that was penetrating Lisanna's skin, scarring it permanently.

Lisanna choked on another sob, before lightly pushing Juvia away from her. "Go. . . Please. . ."

Juvia was at a loss of words. She felt highly invigorated, which could only mean that Lisanna had given Juvia most of her energy. Which only meant that Lisanna didn't have much of her own. . . "Juvia won't lea—"

"NOW!" Lisanna roared, her fist changing into the shape of a giant one as she charged Jellal.

Juvia shook her head and moved to help Lisanna, but was gripped instead by what seemed to be a furry tail. She winced at the tight grasp, and briefly managed to turn her head and saw that it also belonged to Lisanna. The tail, still wrapped around Juvia's waist, rushed her to the door's keyhole and kept her there, waiting for Juvia to transform into water and make her escape.

At first, Juvia resisted the grip of the tail, but when she did that, the grip only tightened. It was then that she realized that she was causing Lisanna to waste energy since Lisanna was using a good amount of it to force Juvia to escape when she could be using it instead to fight Jellal.

_Fight Jellal. . .Oh, how is Juvia going to tell Natsu-Sama?_

With a single, "Lisanna! I promise, I'll come back for you!" Juvia transformed into water, and escaped through the keyhole.

* * *

Lisanna choked back another sob, but continued to fight Jellal. She could feel herself swaying from lack of stamina and willpower. Now that Juvia had escaped, there was nothing to worry about but herself. Jellal easily caught her off guard, and threw her to the ground.

Lisanna shrieked as she felt the sharp pain in her back from being slammed to the ground. A foot was roughly planted onto her stomach. She managed to make out Jellal's dark, empty eyes through the darkness, and it only made her smile sadly, "You. . . You're not like what I expected you'd be. . ."

Jellal simply grimaced at her, and planted his foot even more heavily onto her frail body. "I am who I am." His eyes began to cloud, and suddenly they weren't so cold anymore. He looked around, seemingly confused, before his eyes met hers. With a gasp of surprise, he immediately stepped off of Lisanna, and dashed to a corner. "What did I. . . Who are you?"

Lisanna attempted to sit up to look at him, but she felt like she couldn't. Her body was going numb, and her head continued to spin. _Is this what it feels like. . . to be dying?_

She opened her mouth to respond to the man with blue hair, but found no words to come out. _Natsu. . . Mira. . . Elfman. . .I'm sorry. . . I. . . I lov—_

Lisanna's world went black.

* * *

**A Wishful Thought: Whoa. I'm hoping that the foreshadowing wasn't too obvious, but I still think it was. XD**

**Did you like the ending? Ah, Lisanna is so noble! Ooooh, I liked this chapter so much! It was a lot of fun to write!**

_**REVIEW.**_


	10. Their Bitter Return

**A Wishful Thought (A Note From The Author):** I'm SUPER DUPER sorry that I haven't updated this in forever! D: I'm hoping to start updating it at least once a month. I hope I haven't lost any readers over this. D:

I'll admit that last chapter was EXTREMELY fun to write, even though Lisanna's fate is kind of questionable. . .

**I'd like to thank all the people that subscribed and added this story to their Favorites List.** I honestly don't know where I'd be without you guys!

**And I'd like to shoot an even BIGGER thanks to everyone that took the time to review. :)**

**ScarletKnightmare****, ****Dimensional Roamer****, ****miyame-chan****, ****Riniel von Lazard****, ****Beta5200**** and ****rourie**

Every time I read one of your reviews, it made me smile. :D

Now, on with the story!

* * *

_Their Bitter Return_

_Keep walking. . . Juvia has to. . . keep. . . walking. . ._

The blue-haired woman was already beginning to sway, and walking proved to be a continuous struggle for her as she had run out of adrenaline and magical energy. Her skin was pale from her lack of blood, but it was difficult to even _see_ her skin, for it was covered in numerous burns, each one varying in severity. Blood had poured from several areas on her body, and was just now beginning to dry. Numerous bruises painted her body, but the darkest ones were around her neck. Her bright blue hair was matted with blood, and the woman couldn't even tell if it was hers or not.

It was a miracle that she had managed to get this far.

Her tears continued to fall, even as she forced herself to continue onward. The pain was blinding, but she knew she had to make it back to Wendy, and then back towards the guild. If not for herself, then at least for Lisanna.

As Juvia's thoughts turned towards the white-haired girl, her tears seemed to fall harder, faster.

_Lisanna_.

The pain torturing her body seemed to only intensify. It was all her fault. Everything felt like her fault. Why couldn't she make her decision sooner? She should've left when Jellal had told her to. If she did, then maybe. . . Maybe Lisanna would've been alright. . . She would've been returning _with_ them.

"J-Juvia!"

The high-pitched scream from the younger mage barely even registered to the blue-haired girl. As though it was out of her control, Juvia collapsed right then and there.

* * *

The Fairy Tail Guild was basically empty.

For once, there was no drunken laughter, no ridiculous insults thrown about, and no one was even _fighting_. It was absolutely quiet.

Perhaps it was because of the hour at which the group had gathered; three o'clock in the morning. They had started staying for a couple of days now.

At first, it was difficult for them to stay up for so long, especially since they had been taking simple, though sometimes tough, missions throughout the day to make some money, but as the days went on, they had gotten used to it.

Sometimes, the guild members assembled would take turns falling asleep. It would just be for half an hour or so before they'd be woken up, but they were each grateful that they'd be able to have at least _some_ rest.

To them, all the trouble would be worth it in the end.

Mirajane had finished wiping down the bar and cleaning up her workstation, and now she was quietly sitting on a stool and absentmindedly creating random doodles on the bar table with her finger. Her eyes would occasionally droop a bit, but she forced herself to remain awake. At every little noise though, she'd flinch, only making it obvious that she was really on edge.

Levy and Gajeel were sitting on opposite sides of a table. Levy completely focused as she read through a book, while Gajeel remained quiet as he munched on a piece of scrap metal. Occasionally, Levy would fidget, and Gajeel's eyes would flash towards her. There was no particular emotion in them, but for some reason, the blue-haired girl couldn't stop a light blush and a hushed, "Sorry," from escaping her lips.

Sitting on the barstools were Loke and Cana. For once, the brunette girl was without drink, and for once, it seemed as though she didn't mind. She seemed a little preoccupied with her thoughts, but still made small talk with the Stellar Spirit next to her. Loke on the other hand seemed a little bored, but as Mirajane, he too was on edge. His leg thumped against the ground incessantly, and he kept glancing at the sleeping Lucy, as though worried that someone would snatch her in her sleep even though the chances of that were highly improbable.

As said before, Lucy was quietly sleeping. She sat at another table with Gray and Natsu, her head resting against the tabletop, and her face peaceful, even though the position couldn't possibly be all that comfortable. For once, Gray and Natsu weren't fighting, arguing, or shooting ridiculous insults at each other. In fact, they had moved their chairs side-by-side so they could whisper without waking Lucy up.

"I have a feeling they're not coming tonight, Natsu."

The fire mage merely shook his head, "I don't know. We haven't even waited two hours yet. They might be coming."

Gray examined Natsu's face for a minute, as though trying to figure something out, but in the end, he just shrugged. "Alright, point taken. But how do we even know that they'll show up at a time like this?"

At this, Natsu remained silent. It took a while, but eventually he murmured, "I just have. . . a feeling."

The ice mage simply gave him a skeptical look, but nodded.

It was then that Mirajane perked up, managing a light whisper, "They're here."

The others in the room stiffened, looking at her with eyes full of surprise. It wasn't that they hadn't expecting the return of their comrades, but for some reason, they were surprised that it had been Mirajane who noticed their arrival first.

Natsu got up to try and wake Lucy, while Gray stood up and signaled for Cana to start creating a barrier around the room that would only allow certain people in. He had a feeling that without the barrier, they were bound to attract some unwanted guests that were curious about all the noise.

And Gray had a feeling that there would be a lot of noise.

Cana slowly nodded at him, carefully flipping over one of her cards onto the bar table, and beginning to activate the field.

Before she could finish though, the guild door was thrown open.

Lucy, who had just woken up, stared, wide-eyed at the sight.

Natsu went rigid, and was filled with numerous emotions that he couldn't even begin to name.

Gray went into a state of shock and guilt, murmured curses already leaving his mouth.

Levy dropped her book, tears already beginning to leave her eyes as she took in the sight before her.

Gajeel stood up out of his chair seeing the state his longtime friend was in. Anger boiled within him, and he was already vowing to kill whoever caused her current state.

Loke remained speechless, an alarmed expression on his face.

Cana instantly stopped performing her magic out of shock, the faint blue glow coating her hands coming to a stop.

Mirajane screamed as hysterical sobs began to rack her body.

Standing in the doorway was a beat up Juvia and a sobbing Wendy desperately trying to support her. The little pieces of fabric that hadn't been burnt or torn away were covered in crimson blood. Her skin was severely burnt, and the burn marks coated her skin, all of them looking severe to the eyes of her nakama. Bruises could be noticed and they were scattered across her body, but the worst ones appeared at her neck. The bright blue hair that she had taken such pride in was matted with blood and dirt, and because of all the injuries to her face, the water mage could barely manage to open her eyes.

For a little bit, no one was able to function properly as the shock attempted to settle into each of them.

It was Mirajane's hysterical sobs that forced Gray to snap out of the reverie. Turning back to Cana, he signaled for the distraught woman to begin activating the barrier once more. It took a while, but eventually she nodded, magic beginning to engulf her hands once more as she created the walls around them.

Seeing that Wendy was too small to properly support Juvia, Loke and Gajeel rushed forward to relieve her. They winced as Juvia let out an incomprehensible noise of pain as they gingerly held her, her burns and bruises making every touch feel so full of hurt.

Lucy and Levy had run to Mirajane, trying to get her to calm down as their own tears began to cascade down their faces.

Natsu had squatted down so that he was Wendy's height, engulfing her in a hug as she cried, her tears already beginning to stain his shirt.

Since the magical barrier was now set, Cana and Gray rushed to make an appropriate area to lie Juvia down. Gray was already beginning to push the numerous bar tables away to make room, and Cana was already coming back with numerous pillows and thick blankets from the store room. They carefully arranged a mattress out of the pillows, before placing the blankets over them and stacking a few more pillows so that she could properly rest her head.

Hesitantly, Loke and Gajeel worked to lay her down on the makeshift bed, forcing themselves to ignore the cries of anguish and pain that was escaping her.

Levy tried to reason to the white-haired girl through her tears, "Mira. . . Mira, you have to move. Out of all of us, you're the one that best knows how to treat Juvia. . ."

The woman slowly nodded, still unable to stop herself from crying. She stumbled towards the rest of the group that had already begun gathering around Juvia, Levy and Lucy not too far behind her. Carefully, she crouched down to investigate the woman's wounds, but the sight seemed to only make her cry harder. "G-Get me the o-ointment a-and bandages i-in the cupboard. . ."

Loke silently nodded, before darting towards the aforementioned cupboard, and returning with the supplies that Mirajane had requested. The S-Class mage nodded in silent thanks, before turning her gaze towards the little equipment she had. She continued to stare at it all for a minute, before she spoke up. "I-I don't think we have enough bandages. . ." Her voice cracked on the few words she managed to whisper.

The short sentence was enough to strike a strong feeling of pain within all of the mages gathered around Juvia.

Eyes wide, Lucy asked, "W-What do you mean t-there's not enough?"

Mira simply gestured to the miniscule roll of bandages that lay beside her. "I-I barely have any, and t-this definitely i-isn't enough to cover even just her s-severe injuries. . ."

Surprisingly enough, Gajeel was one of the _most_ worried out of the entire group. He remained silent, his expression blank as he stared at Juvia's disfigured form. And to be honest, it was beginning to frighten Levy. She had always known Gajeel as the cocky, tough guy that never really seemed to be down. Seeing him like this seemed to increase Levy's desperateness to see her fellow mage get better, and she hurriedly suggested, "The supply room! W-We can get extra bandages there!"

There were several nods of approval, and Gray had already jumped out of his place, murmuring, "I'll get it."

He had already begun his sprint to the said supply room, before Mira let out a broken, "Wait!"

Slowly, Gray's footfalls came to a stop. He didn't turn around, and his eyes were still set forward. Still, Mira trusted that he was listening as she whispered, "We can't take anything from there. . . Only Makarov has the key. . ."

It was quiet for a moment as this information settled into each one of the mages. But a few seconds later, Gray smashed his hand through the nearest table, screaming, "DAMMIT!" Tears were pouring out of his eyes, and blood poured from the cuts that he received when he broke the wooden table. Nobody said anything as the ice mage slowly collapsed to the floor, his head buried in his arms as he sobbed. "It's all my fault! It's all my damn fault!"

Eyes wide with worry, and tear stains still visible on her porcelain skin, Lucy rushed toward her friend, "G-Gray, it wasn't your fault! I-It was nobody's fault! W-We didn't think that any of this would hap—"

As Lucy neared him to try and comfort him, he raised his head to glare at her, "Don't touch me."

The room remained silent as Lucy stared at Gray in shock, obviously surprised with Gray's words. "G-Gray, I'm just trying to help you—"

"I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!"

Lucy shrunk back at his words, before she began to sob as well.

Loke growled, and moved from his position to stomp towards Gray, "What's your fucking problem! ? I know that you're upset, but Lucy's just trying to help!"

Gray jumped out of his crouched position, eyes stormy, "_Help_! ? If she was trying to help, she'd be worrying about helping _Juvia_! We need to find some _damn_ bandages so that Mira can help _Juvia_! Juvia's all that matters at this point!"

At this, Gajeel stood up, eyes narrowed. Out of all of the people gathered, he had been the only one to not cry, but it was obvious that he was greatly affected by the whole experience. "_Now_ you care about Juvia! ? You've never even paid the _slightest _amount of attention to her before, and now_ you're_ the one getting all emotional about this! ?" Gray quieted at his words but said nothing. Still, his breathing was labored, and he looked pained.

Gajeel looked as though he was going to continue yelling, but quietly, Levy placed her hand on his shoulder. It was like with that one touch, Gajeel just broke down. Tears began to leak from his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away, turning his gaze back towards Juvia and Mirajane. "There has to be _something_ we can use to substitute as a bandage. It can't be _that_ hard to find something else, right?"

Mira simply nodded, her eyes still puffy from all her crying. "I'm sure that if we used clean cloth, it would suffice."

The iron dragonslayer simply nodded, muttering, "I'll be back." He rushed out the guild doors, probably to get some clean clothes that they could use, making Levy's hand clumsily fall. She reached out for a moment, but ended up only biting her lip, and staring quietly at her shoes.

Loke had moved to comfort Lucy he was in hysterics, leaving Gray alone. While Cana was helping Natsu set up a makeshift mattress for Wendy, the brunette girl couldn't help but give the ice mage a pained, sympathetic look. Her emotions were running frantic, between her feelings for Gray, Gray's feelings for her, and with the sudden arrival of the severely injured Juvia.

It was quiet for a moment before Cana's eyes widened, and she dropped the blanket she was holding.

Natsu, still teary-eyed gave her a curious look, "What's wrong?"

A mortified expression took place on Cana's features, and though it seemed like she was staring at everyone, her eyes seemed to focus more on Mirajane and Natsu. Before anyone could ask again, the brunette mage quickly spun around to face the younger girl beside her, who was still sobbing hysterically. "Where's Lisanna! ?"

The room went frigid as the simple question soaked into all of them. Natsu's insides dropped, and his heart rate seemed to accelerate as he processed this, as did Mira. Both of them had been so worried about the condition of the water mage that they hadn't even noticed that Lisanna was missing.

When Wendy said nothing, Mira jumped out of her seat on the floor, tears once more rushing down her face. She screamed hysterically, "_Where' s my sister_! ?"

Quietly, the semi-conscious Juvia whispered, "Jellal. . . _killed_ her. . ."

* * *

**A Wishful Thought:** OOOHHHHH SNAAAP! :o

That chapter made me sad, and I'm the one who wrote it. O_O  
I hope it touched you guys as much as it touched me, and that it was at least enjoyable. (:

Haha, everyone seems super emotional right now, don't they? XP  
I intend to make edits to this once my beta gets back to me. I just wanted to let this out now because I felt that you've guys have had to wait long enough! XP

IN OTHER NEWS, I'm all caught up on Fairy Tail now. O_O Who else spazzed out when they read the end of Chapter 253? O_O LIKE HOLYYYY SHIIIIT! D: If you've read it (I don't want to spoil anything for the people who haven't read it yet), send me a message so that we can obsess over it together. XD

Please _**REVIEW**_! They mean so much to me!


	11. Tensions Running High

**A Wishful Thought:** Wow, you guys. I got so much feedback from that last chapter! :'D I was so worried that I lost so many readers for not updating in so long. I'm so happy I was wrong! :') I've kept my promise, too. November still isn't over! :D Still, it's been over a month (haha, I had said I would update next month, but technically a month is thirty/thirty-one days, and I've passed both so. . . _) so I made this chapter longer than my usual. In fact, it's DOUBLE the length of the last chapter. ;D

I've also taken the liberty to revamp some of the former chapters.

1—Edited the "Flashback" scene with Gray; changed the summary; added a list of love triangles/couples for everyone to fight over. In the end, it'll be you guys who decide the couples!

2—Made Gray and Lucy's fight a bit more extreme (it'll come into this chapter or the next, but you don't have to reread it if you don't want to); threw in a fight between Gray and Natsu, hopefully for a somewhat humorous effect? ^^;;

I hope to get to adding more things for the other chapters, too. I'm hoping to add more to the Word Count! XP Feel free to let me know whether you like the changes or not. ^^;;

ANYWHO, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I mean, HOLY CRAP! 22 reviews! That's the most I've ever gotten for Never Let Me Go before! :D I'd like to keep it up if that's alright with all of you! :'D

**Black Blood Alliance**, **miyame-chan**, **kisshufan4ever**, **GajeelxLevy**, **racerabbit**, **timecage**, **Dimensional Roamer**, **NaLu Seirei**, **Yuki Kusanagi**, **(blank)**, **Beta5200**, **eelgirl13** and special thanks to **MaxTiger** who gave me some very helpful constructive criticism. :D

Without further ado, I present the latest chapter of **Never Let Me Go**! :D

* * *

_Tensions Running High_

The room became painfully silent.

There were no worried whispers, no screams of anguish, no sobs of regret.

Nothing but silence was in the room.

And nothing but the thunderous silence weighed down on each mage's shoulders, their insides already running cold from what the fallen water mage had whispered, their hearts already beating violently in their chests.

Only silence.

Nobody moved. It seemed like nobody bothered to breathe either. No one even raised their eyes to glance at another.

It was like no one could comprehend the simplicity of the three blunt words.

Mirajane ended up being the one to stop the silence and was the first to move. A slight, hesitant shake of the head at first quickly grew in speed and intensity. The blue eyes of the Transformation Mage were wide with disbelief and surprise, and the remnants of her former tears still hung loosely on the bottom row of her eyelashes. As she continued to shake her head, her breathing seemed to increase and her body began to quiver.

Natsu was the next one to make a move: the quick clenching and unclenching of his fists. Like Mirajane's movement, it started off hesitant and with little intensity, but as time went on, became faster and stronger. It got to the point where every time his fist would clench, the veins underneath his skin seemed to throb powerfully. His untidy pink hair shadowed his eyes from the view of his fellow mages, but to those who registered this, they knew that it would probably be better for them to not be able to see the DragonSlayer's full reaction.

Nobody was paying close enough attention to tell who exactly said it first, but many of them registered the quiet fragment of a thought to be whispered in unison, "No. . . He wouldn't. . .She couldn't be. . ."

Juvia managed a twitch of her lip, but even that small movement seemed to take so much energy out of her. The blunette's eyes were blinking rapidly, making it obvious to the few that were paying attention to her that she was fighting to stay awake. "Juvia. . . Does not lie. . ."

And with those words said, all hell seemed to break lose.

A piercing scream echoed throughout the hall, and before anyone could make a move to stop her, Mirajane appeared standing over Juvia, the signature eyes of Satan Soul already shining with angry tears. She was breathing heavily, and was trembling severely, but her foot was still roughly planted on the lower half of the water mage's torso. A fiery golden glow illuminated the dull room, being the most concentrated at where Mirajane stood. A powerful gust of warm wind seemed to come out of nowhere, whipping her silver tresses madly, giving her a menacing halo.

The other mages had expressions of shock on their faces. The innocent Mirajane rarely became so upset. . . and the result was rather frightening. Before anyone could move to help Juvia, the S-Class mage quietly spoke, "You. . . Liar."

The water mage attempted to shake her head, and seeing this, Mirajane only increased the pressure on Juvia's torso. The water mage felt a warm sensation in her mouth, and coughed it out, sending a stream of red liquid a few inches into the air.

Wendy's sobs became harder and faster, but she still managed to stumble towards the S-Class Mage, "P-Please, Mira-San! Y-Y-You have to stop, it wasn't—"

The tears were falling uncontrollably out of the Transformation Mage's eyes, but an uncontained anger still lingered in them. She slowly raised her arm, which had already made the transformation into the scaly, claw-like arm of Satan Soul, before pointing her palm towards the much younger girl. "It was your fault as well."

Wendy could only look at the older mage in horror as a stream of darkness wrapped around her, raising her high into the air.

Eyes wide, and expression frantic, Gray attempted to make her voice heard over the howling of the wind, "Mira! Stop it!"

The silver-haired mage turned her gaze to the black-haired individual, before moving her gaze over the rest of the mages in the room that were giving her expressions full of devastation and shock. Her eyes only seemed to narrow as she whispered, "For Lisanna."

With that, the darkness that was holding Wendy flung her into a wall, and with a whimper, the young girl lost consciousness.

Taking this as a declaration of battle, Gray dashed towards the attacker, his left fist already raised as he got ready to knock sense into the older woman. Before he actually made contact with her though, an invisible force reflected his attack and sent him flying across the room.

"Gray!"

His body somersaulted through the air as he broke through numerous tables and chairs, landing a few feet away from where Lucy, Cana, Loke, and Levy had watched the exchange in utter disbelief. He was panting heavily, and had already received major scratches and bruises from his launch. There was something in his eyes that said that he wasn't willing to give up though as he stared at his fellow comrades. Something that was almost like challenging the others to join him.

The other four mages were filled with inner conflict, none of them knowing what they should do. Mira was their comrade, but. . . she was hurting Juvia, another one of their comrades, who was on the brink of death.

Lucy bit her lip, her tear-stained face contorting into an expression that combined fright and sadness. Warily, she turned her head to the Celestial Spirit kneeling beside her with his arm still protectively around her. "Loke. . ."

The Spirit of the Lion blinked, before looking at the frail girl next to him. His dark eyes took in her lighter brown ones. It was as though he was able to understand what his master wanted him to do without even having to hear her speak, and after a moment of hesitation, the Spirit nodded. Retracting his arm from around Lucy, the Celestial Spirit seemed to stand a bit straighter. Though he was already in his Spirit form, he couldn't help but finger the ring on his right index finger. He turned his head to look down at the blonde girl at his feet, who gave an uncertain nod.

The Lion managed a smirk, before running into battle.

With a twist of his ring, his right fist was immediately engulfed in light bright enough to rival the golden aura surrounding the silver haired mage.

Seeing this, Cana and Levy shot each other uncertain looks, before warily nodding. Cana quickly reached into the small bag on her side, pulling out her deck of trusted cards. She quickly flipped through them until she found the three she were looking for: Heaven, Reverse Death, and Mountain. She activated the cards, and the familiar magic seal came to life before her while the three cards hovered in midair.

Levy bit her lip nervously, but still managed to write the word, "Strength," in the air, before throwing it at Loke. Sensing something heading in his direction, the Lion Spirit turned his head to see what it was. Seeing the word flying towards him, he raised his arm to catch it, and nodded in thanks toward the blunette. Before he turned his attention forward once more, he mouthed a single word to his fellow mage, "Lucy."

Immediately, Levy's eyes flickered towards the girl, a worried expression on her face. She was out in the open, and if Mira decided to retaliate, she would be in danger. Even though Loke couldn't see her anymore, the blunette nodded. She ran towards Lucy, and wrote the word, "Protect," in large enough letters to cover herself and her fellow mage.

Still, Levy's eyes darted to Wendy, who lay on the other side of the bar. She knew that she wouldn't make it in time if she tried to run towards her and bring her over to Lucy and herself to make sure that she was alright, so she wrote the word, "Protect" once more, and threw it so that it would hover in front of the younger girl's body.

There was a small smirk in addition to the determined eyes of the ice mage as he stood up off the floor. Instead of brushing the dirt off of himself, he quickly stripped off the shirt he was wearing, before running at full speed to catch up with Loke.

Knowing that it was best for Gray to catch up with the Celestial Spirit so they could attack in unison, Levy hastily scribbled the word, "Agility," and threw it at her comrade. Almost as if he knew we should be doing something of the sort, the ice mage raised his arm in perfect timing to catch the word, which dissolved into thin air as Gray rushed forward in a sudden burst of speed.

In no time, he was running beside Loke, who nodded at his appearance. The two seemed to share a silent strategy for a moment, before splitting off into two different directions. Mirajane was standing near the back center of the bar, and Loke had dashed to the left, while Gray made his way to the right.

In a matter of seconds, the two men were about fifteen feet away from Mirajane, and both couldn't help but feel even more conflicted since it seemed like she was making no move to prepare herself for the blow. As if to warn her of what was to come, Loke, who seemed less at ease than Gray, began to call out the name of his attack, "Regulus. . ."

Since he had yet to get his magic ready, Gray did the same while running and sculpting his ice, "Ice Make. . ."

Taking this as a cue, Cana also began to call out the name of her own attack, "Summoned. . ."

The two only got closer and closer to the S-Class Mage, and much to their dismay, the mage didn't seem close to calming down at all. The aura seemed to intensify more, and if it were possible, the speed of the wind became even faster. The Celestial Spirit steeled himself for what he was about to do, as did Gray and Cana.

Then, in unison, they unleashed their attacks.

". . .Punch!"

". . .Death Scythe!"

". . .Lightning!"

"STOP IT!"

Simultaneously, the eyes of everyone in the room widened, but it was too late for the three attacking mages to stop their assault.

The combined light from all the magic in the room was practically blinding, and Levy and Lucy, even though they weren't directly participating in battle, flinched away from the light, covering their faces from its intensity.

Immediately afterwards, it was like everything just stopped. The lighting in the room dimmed significantly, the howling wind stopped almost instantly, and the room grew uncomfortably silent once more. Hesitantly, Levy and Lucy moved their arms away from their face so they could see what was happening.

It was their collective gasps that broke the silence.

Standing where Mirajane formerly was, was the lowered head of Natsu, his body shaking tremendously, and his breathing as labored as ever. Parts of his clothing had been burned to shreds from both Cana's lightning and Loke's Regulus attack, and there was a large bruise on the left side of his chest, along with a couple of scorch marks. There was a long, deep gash from his right shoulder to the left side of his waist, and Gray's abandoned ice scythe was at his feet. Mirajane was on the floor a few feet away, and it seemed that when Natsu had pushed her out of the way, the surprise of his attack (since she had been steeling herself for Gray and Loke's attack, and wasn't expecting one from behind her) and the attack itself was enough to break her out of her reverie. Her face was shadowed by her hair, and she was completely in human form now. She seemed worn out as she gasped desperately for air, and like Natsu, she was shaking uncontrollably. Gray, Loke, and Cana were each wearing identical expressions of shock, regret, and even guilt. Loke was still standing in a hesitant battle stance, eyes alternating from looking at Mirajane to looking at Natsu as though he was expecting some sort of retaliation. Cana seemed simply awestruck with her cards at her feet and her mouth slightly agape. Gray on the other hand couldn't seem to move his gaze away from the long gash he had accidentally placed on Natsu's chest. His eyes seemed wider than the others, and the astonished guilt was strongest on his face out of the three.

No one made a move when the guild door opened, and someone reentered the barrier.

Hair messy, slight tear stains on his face, pile of old clothes in his arms, and eyes wide, Gajeel simply let out a startled, "What the hell happened when I was gone?"

* * *

Unfortunately, Gajeel's entrance did nothing to break the atmosphere in the room.

Juvia had apparently passed out during the battle, and was still on the floor unconscious, as was Wendy.

Mirajane was still on her knees on the dirty bar floor, still shaking as the sobs racked her body.

Natsu still had his head down as he breathed heavily and shook uncontrollably.

Gray, Loke and Cana made no move to confirm that they had even acknowledged his arrival.

It was only Lucy and Levy that gave him even remote attention, and that was only through a spared glance.

The Iron DragonSlayer felt his blood begin to boil at how ignored he was, but it soon clicked that now wouldn't be the best time to throw a fit. In fact, it was now becoming obvious to him that the situation in the room had gotten even worse after he left.

And so, the new arrival decided to bite his tongue and watch the scene before him unfold.

Slowly, Natsu raised his head, revealing his puffy red eyes, tearstained cheeks and the crimson blood trailing out of the corner of his mouth. With a light cough, the glob of red liquid landed at his feet, almost touching the fallen water mage. He was still shaking, and as he opened his mouth to speak, a few more tears leaked out of his eyes, "No more fighting. . . Nakama aren't meant to fight with each other."

The absolute sadness on his face was heart wrenching, especially since seeing just a _frown_ was rare on the face of the optimistic DragonSlayer.

The room remained silent as the other mages regarded him, before Mirajane slowly stood up from her position on the floor, her knees wobbling as though she would fall at any minute. She raised her arm to wipe off some of the tears on her face, and once she removed it, she hesitantly raised her face towards her fellow mages. Some of her tears were caught in her eyelashes as she whispered, "I'm sorry, I just. . . I-I lost control. . ."

When her voice cracked on the last word, Gajeel couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He scanned the faces of the other mages as though it would give him a clue as what exactly was happening, but nobody even made eye contact with him.

"This needs to stop."

All eyes immediately darted to the ice mage, who had muttered the words. Now he was trembling just as Mira and Natsu, and his hands were clenched in tight fists. His head was bowed, his hair shadowing his expression.

Though everyone had a feeling that they knew what he was talking about, Loke still felt inclined to ask, "Stop what?"

Gray raised his stormy, dark eyes in a glare that could freeze hell over, "You know exactly what the fuck I mean."

The mages in the room all silently regarded his implication, and Lucy quietly spoke up from her position on the floor, "Gray's right. We never should've started anything like this in the first place. Look at what the result is so far. . ."

No one made an indication as to their feelings about her statement, and the room became silent once more.

Then slowly, Natsu shook his head, "No. . . We can't stop now."

Everyone's eyes instantly flickered to the rosy-haired mage, and no one was able to skim over the fact that his bruise seemed to have worsened considerably in such a short amount of time. Seeing this, the guilt within Loke worsened, and he muttered a halfhearted, "And why is that?"

"We have to get Jellal out of jail. . . for Erza."

Numerous people in the room blinked in surprise at the simplicity of his claim, until Mirajane shook her head sadly, "No. . . That reason isn't enough anymore. . ."

Immediately, Natsu's eyes narrowed into a solid glare that he turned towards the silver-haired mage, "Of course it is. No one in Fairy Tail deserves to suffer, and—"

"THEN WHY THE HELL DO I HAVE TO SUFFER, HUH! ?" Everyone turned to Mirajane, eyes full of pure shock. Her eyes were closed tightly, and as the tears rushed down her face, she continued to scream, "LISANNA HAD JUST GOTTEN BACK! A-After all these years, she had finally c-come back. . . AND SHE'S GONE AGAIN!" For a few moments, she remained quiet as she tried to regain control of her breathing. Then, her stormy blue eyes opened as she turned her glare to Natsu specifically, "If no one in Fairy Tail deserves to suffer. . . Then what did I do that was so bad that I get to be the exception of that rule? Lisanna. . . Innocent Lisanna. . ."

The silence resumed as her fellow mages regarded her. Then slowly, their gazes shifted to Natsu, to see how he would retaliate.

A single tear managed to leak out of the fire DragonSlayer's eye, but he made no move to wipe it away. "Yeah. . . We've all suffered. . . Haven't we?" No one responded to his question, so the rosy-haired boy continued, "Mira. . . I don't think you understand how much Lisanna meant to me, too. . ." As he said her name, more tears fell from his eyes, "I-I'm suffering as much as you. . . And everyone here in this room has suffered just as much for even longer amounts of time. The loss of a parent. . . The guilt over the death of a loved one. . . Growing up with a lack of love. . ." As he said these things, the respective mages he was referring to lowered their heads quietly. Natsu remained silent for a few moments, as though to let the thoughts of the other mages settle. Then, he began again, "But at each opportunity to end their suffering. . . Didn't the Fairy always jump forward to risk its life, just to be able to see a genuine smile on the face of its nakama once more?"

Memories stormed the minds of the mages gathered in the room.

For Levy, the memory of being beaten in the middle of the night along with her two teammates was followed by the faint recognition of being tied to a tree with the symbol of Phantom Lord on her lower stomach. Then as she recovered, finding out the news that Fairy Tail had declared war on Phantom Lord, refusing to let the pain of herself and her comrades become forgotten.

For Gajeel, it was the memory of losing Metalicana, and finding his new home in the guild of Phantom Lord. Fragments of his numerous battles in that guild came to mind, until at last, his guild, his home, was no more. Then the appearance of the tiny, old man, Makarov at the ruins of Phantom Lord, telling him that he will never forgive him for hurting his children, but beckoning him to join Fairy Tail, insisting that the guild would help put him on the right path.

For Loke, it all began with the memories of his first master, Karen, and her mistreatment of Aries. He remembered how she refused to release the contracts on both him and Aries, and how he refused to enter the Spirit World until she did so, ultimately leading to her death. Soon, the memory of joining Fairy Tail was followed by the fear of knowing that his death was near. He remembered how he forced himself to quit Fairy Tail, how he broke off connections to all those in the Earthland world, as the date of his death was quickly approaching. Then Lucy appeared, challenging the Celestial Spirit King himself if it meant saving him.

For Lucy, it was fragments of her childhood. The love of her mother, and the lack of love from her father. Her mother's death, and her own running away from home, meeting Natsu, and joining Fairy Tail. She remembered how Element 4 kidnapped her, and then how Natsu risked his life to save her, and bring her back to Fairy Tail.

For Gray, it started with the nightmare that was Deliora, the horrendous demon that murdered his family. It then shifted to when Ur took him in as her student, training him in the ways of magic. Fragments of their times together quickly morphed into the time when he defied what his teacher had told him. Soon, the memory of his teacher's sacrifice to save his life was followed by his joining of Fairy Tail, and the memory of the events on Galuna Island. He remembered how he was ready to sacrifice himself in order to stop Leon form reviving Deliora, but how Natsu interrupted the spell, refusing to allow Gray to kill himself over the whole thing.

And without meaning to, Mirajane herself remembered her _first_ loss of Lisanna. How empty she felt, and how lost and confused. But as the memory continued, she remembered the mourning of Fairy Tail, the sympathy and tears of her fellow mages, Lisanna's best friend with the rosy hair going into a state that was comparable to even her own depression.

While the others wallowed in their memories, it was Cana who spoke up. She seemed sad as she whispered, "Not every person's suffering has been fixed. . ."

Gray rose his eyes to meet hers first, a questioning, surprised look in them. "What do you—"

Before he could finish asking his question though, Natsu interrupted, acting as though he hadn't heard what Cana had said. "Don't you remember? What does Master always say our guild's policy is?"

The others were shaken out of their reverie by his question, and with their somewhat mystified whispers, they joined in with Natsu's determined voice, "Do whatever you think is right."

The room was eerily silent once more as the mages in the room contemplated his words, and partially their own. As they continued their thoughts, Natsu lowered his voice to something a little louder than a whisper, "Now. . . Don't you feel like this is the right thing to do? When we were hurt and filled with pain, Fairy Tail never failed to at least _try _to put an end to that suffering. Shouldn't we, as members of Fairy Tail, keep with the tradition and at least _try_ to stop all the pain that Erza is going through?"

Levy for one, was already bought by Natsu's speech, and she stood up out of her position on the floor to announce it. But before she could, Mirajane beat her to the punch. "I understand that, Natsu. Believe me, I do. . . But hear me out. We _did_ try to help Erza. We infiltrated the jail, and based on what Juvia said. . ." Her voice trailed off, and she shifted uncomfortably where she stood, making it obvious that she couldn't bear to finish the thought, let alone the sentence.

Thankfully, Gray understood what the silver-haired mage was leading up to, and continued what she had intended to say, "We were even able to _meet Jellal_, Natsu. We tried, and look at where that got us. Look at what happened to. . . To Juvia. And. . ." The ice mage's eyes flickered towards the Transformation Mage, who had already bowed her head in sadness. Seeing this, he lowered his voice slightly, "And to _Lisanna_."

For a moment, it looked like Natsu was willing to crack, but then he shook his head vigorously, clenching his fists. "I know. . . What happened to them was. . ." The DragonSlayer shook his head, unable to finish his sentence. His fists seemed to clench even tighter, and it seemed as though he was fighting himself to say what he wanted to say. And ultimately, he did, "Lisanna and Juvia. . . They _knew_ what we were planning to do, and they _knew_ the risks that they would be taking when they agreed to take part in our plan. . ." The rosy-haired paused for a moment as he managed to clench his fists even _tighter_. It was at the point where the veins in them looked like they were about to pop. "They went through so much, trying to make it so that Erza could be happy again. And if we just stop this all now. . . Wouldn't we have forced our nakama to suffer in vain?"

Eyes widened as the thought came to light in each mage's mind.

Seeing that no one else intended to rebuttal him, Gray spoke up, "Natsu. . . Even if we manage to get Jellal out of jail? What then? The Mage Council is automatically going to assume that Fairy Tail is involved. . . Erza is my comrade just as much as she is yours, but are we really willing to forfeit our entire guild, just to keep her happy?"

The room remained silent as the situation was pondered over. Even Levy, who had seemed as though she had been completely bought by Natsu's words seemed like she was beginning to question it all again.

"Tomorrow." The mages in the room turned their gazes back to the rosy-haired boy once more. "We'll meet at Lucy's apartment, and put it to a vote tomorrow."

The blonde haired woman blinked in surprise at the statement but before long, she let out a high-pitched shriek as she regarded her fellow guild members that didn't seem to think that meeting at her apartment was a big deal, "_Ehhhh! ? My_ place! ?"

Natsu rose an eyebrow at her curiously, "Well, _yeah_. I mean, you're going to be letting Juvia and Wendy stay with you for the time being, right? It's best that we just meet up wherever they are, so we don't have to worry about transporting the bodies again."

Lucy sweatdropped at the fact that Natsu had automatically assumed that _her_ apartment was where he could do anything he wanted to do. She quickly shot a glance at each of the other mages in the room, hoping that at least _one of them_ would help her out, but they all seemed to be wrapped up in their own thoughts. Even Loke, who had sworn to always be there in her time of need, didn't seem to be rushing to help her out _at all_. Biting her lip, the Celestial Spirit Mage racked her brain for an excuse as to why her place wouldn't be the best place to meet up. It wasn't that she _didn't_ want her place to be used, it was more that she was _annoyed_ that people simply thought that they could do anything at her place instead of theirs.

Now if she had _volunteered herself first_, then it would all be a different story.

With a flash of an imaginary lightbulb that floated beside Lucy's head, she said, "But Erza _always_ randomly shows up at my apartment. I-If she decides to stop by between now and our next meeting, she'll see Juvia and Wendy's state, and there's _no way_ I can lie to Erza! She'll pummel me!"

Mirajane, who seemed to have gotten over her sadness for the time being, waved away Lucy's concern half-heartedly, "No. The Master has sent her on a vacation." The eyebrows of several of the mages in the room raised in surprise, "It was more like he arranged for an interview and photo shoot between her and Sorcerer Magazine, and called it a mission. You know Erza, she won't defy the Master."

The others nodded in agreement with her, and Lucy sweatdropped once more at her failure. Realizing that she couldn't find any other argument, she gave a hesitant nod, "Yeah. . . I guess they'll be staying at my place then."

Natsu managed a weak smile at her words, and despite everything that had just happened, Lucy couldn't help but feel better after seeing even the _slightest_ gesture of happiness on her friend's face.

"Then tomorrow it is."

* * *

**A Wishful Thought:** I'm going to be honest here, I'm not sure that I liked how this chapter came out all that much. Still, I hoped that you all enjoyed it! And I know I'm a little late, but Happy Thanksgiving! Also, I hope that trying to lighten the mood a bit at the end of the chapter wasn't TOO BIG of a fail. XDa

**In the Next Chapter. . .**  
Lucy has more questions for Gray regarding his _true_ opinion on the whole matter, the group decide on their next move and how to cover for the situation with Juvia, Wendy, and Lisanna, and we might even get a special peek on Erza and Makarov's suspicions about this whole ordeal. . . ;D

I'm hoping to get another chapter in next month. O—O

In the mean time, please _**REVIEW**_. THEY'RE INSPIRATIONAL, MAN!


	12. A Note, and a Crappy Omake

**A Wishful Thought**: Hey everyone. :)

I'm glad about all the positive feedback I've been getting over the last chapter! However, something has been. . . Brought to my attention. This is mainly directed to readers of the manga, rather than watchers of the anime, but if you read what happened in the latest chapter of the manga (Chapter 263, to be specific) then I'm sure that you know what I'm getting to.

As you all know, this story is meant to take place IN UNIVERSE of the manga/anime, and its supposed to be seen as something like a possible arc that could take place in the storyline. And I'm sure that many of you would agree that Fairy Tail trying to break Jellal out of jail is an interesting idea indeed!

However, my question is. . . _If the current events of the manga/anime contradict the main storyline of this fanfiction, does that take out the fun for you guys_?

I really did have a lot planned for this fanfiction. Truly, I did. And we were just getting into the interesting part, too! And don't worry, either way, I'm finishing this fanfiction. I just want to know the opinions of my readers. ^^;;

Depending on your feedback (preferably through the reviews on this "chapter"), it'll decide what will happen in the story. Imagine this: the story is currently at a crossroads. One path leads to what I originally planned to happen in the story. The other path leads to something MUCH different than what was supposed to happen, but something that I think is equally interesting. No, its not gonna spoil anything for people that aren't at that point in the canon Fairy Tail storyline, but it's merely another path that could sort of incorporate the recent events of the manga while at the same time, being different.

Oh lord, I'm making no sense here. U_U

What I'd like all of my readers to do, is to simply answer the question that I posed above in italics. ^^;; To be fair, I'm not going to say which answer means what storyline and all, and I'm not going to say which "choice" had the greater vote over the other either. I really do just want your opinions before I continue onwards. ^^;;

Please be as honest and elaborate as you can, if it's not too much trouble! :D

**Edit: **Now, because I just reread the Terms of Fanfiction, I realize that I'm being a bad person for just uploading an Author's Note with no content whatsoever. SO, prepare yourselves for the first NLMG Omake! XD In which madness ensues. I'll also throw in a sneak peek of the next chapter for those who get that far. XD

Here we go!

* * *

"I-I'm not kidding, you guys! I'm dead serious! I think she's gonna... Gonna _rape_ me or something!"

His best friends that had gathered around him shot him peculiar looks. Gray Fullbuster: The cocky, laidback, popular Gray Fullbuster had called his fellow football players for an emergency meeting at his small apartment in a high-pitched hysterical voice. The time was four-thirty in the morning. And it was times like these that Gray was thankful for such awesome friends that would go out of their way to come to him in his time of need. He'd probably never admit it, but he really did love them all like a family.

All except one.

"God, you're such a _Drama Queen_. Guys don't get _raped_. _We_ do the _raping_."

Enter Natsu Dragneel: Sworn Rival of Gray. Most would describe him as a flame-headed idiot, and for some strange reason, Natsu accepted these claims with a stupid grin and open arms. He had been the last to arrive, and had already gone through a majority of the food in Gray's refrigerator.

"IS THAT A CHALLENGE! ?"

"HELL YEAH IT IS!"

"REAL MEN RAPE WOMEN."

Ah, let me introduce you to Elfman. A true idiot that has issues with proving to random people that he is a "real man." He has a tendency to throw wooden objects around until people agree with him, or they manage to knock him out. But despite his size, he's not the strongest person out there, and the latter usually occurs.

Oh, just like now. In case you missed it, Natsu just threw him out the window. Don't worry though, he'll be alright.

Probably.

"Thank _God_ we got rid of him. That guy has some _serious_ issues."

Here's Hibiki Laytis. Surprisingly enough, he doesn't even _attend_ Fairy Tail Academy. Instead, he's chosen to go to the Blue Pegasus School of Modeling, much to the chagrin of his besties. Despite modeling being seen as _extremely_ gay, Hibiki insists that he is completely straight, and his friends believe him. But _because_ of the homosexuals that surround him at Blue Pegasus, he can act a bit... _questionable_. Still, he is extremely intelligent, and one of Gray's close friends whom he calls whenever he needs help.

"Women are delicate creatures, and they should be treated as such! That idiot will _never_ get a girlfriend. And if he does, then I feel sorry for the poor girl that gets suckered into it. Why did you invite him here anyway?"

And here's Loke. Overall, most would consider him closest to Gray. Or at least, the one that Gray will consider most close to _him_. Though he nor Natsu will admit, everyone else can see that they're the best of friends, but Gray continues to insist that his best mate is Loke. Not that Loke minds, of course. Loke is a womanizer, but he manages to be a kind one. He hates it when people don't treat women with respect, and he usually takes on the Knight In Shining Armor personality around damsels in distress.

"Yeah, Ice-For-Brains! What's up with inviting _him_? You always say that you don't even like him!"

"HEY, SHUT UP FLAMEBRAIN!"

"NOT UNLESS YOU MAKE ME, ASS-SHOULDER!"

"THE HELL! ? WHAT KIND OF INSULT WAS _THAT_! ?"

Sensing that the argument would continue unless he did something, Hibiki stepped between the two, "C'mon, c'mon, let's focus here. I'd like to get my beauty sleep, you know?"

Loke scoffed, "Beauty sleep? Are you _sure_ you're not gay?"

The model's eyes widened as his head turned to the man reclining on the sofa. "_Excuse me_! ?"

"You heard me."

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"NOT UNLESS I DO IT FIRST!"

And so, the four remaining young men in the room duked it out, wrecking havoc amidst the small apartment. But because of their distraction, none noticed when a certain blunette snuck in through the window, and tiptoed towards the Quarterback's room.

She looked around for a moment, before running to a corner as she seemed to be looking for something desperately. Her features brightened as she found what she was looking for. The large grin on her face, she inhaled the article of clothing greedily, then hugged it close to her.

"Ah, Juvia loves the smell of Gray-Sama's used underwear."

* * *

**A Wishful Thought:** Okay, it's official. That was the weirdest thing I've ever written. XD  
Sorry for the lameness, but I don't feel very creative right now, so I hope you all don't mind. However, here's that preview I promised if you somehow managed to get through the horrible writing above! XD It's not a full preview, but rather snippets of conversation that will be featured in the next chapter. And whichever way your opinions go when you leave your review, this will probably be included. X3

* * *

"_I-It's because… It's because I think I love her, okay! ?"_

"_Cut the crap and tell me the truth, goddammit!"_

"_No… You can't be serious…"_

"_E-Erza! W-What're you doing here! ?"_

* * *

**A Wishful Thought:** As you can see, we're in for an eventful chapter… ;D Leave some comments, please!


	13. Adventum Domus

**A Wishful Thought: **You guys are freaking awesome. I hope you all know that. :') After much deliberation, I decided to steer the story into this direction. Don't feel too proud of me though. I'm pretty sure that by the end of the chapter, many of you will be trying to strangle me through your computer. xD

I'd like to thank the following people for their feedback and advice:

**Eelgirl13**, **Akarui Nightshade**, **kisshufan4ever beyond birthday**, **GajeelxLevy**, **miyame-chan**, **Beta 5200**, **Yuki Kusanagi**, **Max Tiger**, and **racerabbit**.

I don't know what I would do without you guys! :'D

This chapter is long overdue, so I won't bore you with anymore of my ramblings. XD

Enjoy!

P.S. The title, by the way, is Latin.

P.P.S. I ended up changing the wording of the "preview quotes" I gave you in the last update. The same basic things happen, just different word usage and such. :) I hope no one minds all too much!

* * *

_**Adventum Domus**_

"Thanks… F-For helping me, I mean."

Gray turned up his lazy expression towards the blonde woman who seemed to tower over him since he was sitting on her newly shined apartment floor. "It's not a big deal."

Lucy felt something inside her drop as her body seemed to run cold. _That's _all_ he has to say? He just helped me clean out my _entire_ apartment, load in _all_ my new furniture, _and_ take care of Juvia _and_ Wendy. And all he can say is, 'It's no big deal! ?'_ The slightly younger mage couldn't help but frown. _I was kind of expecting something… more…_

"Are you alright, Luce?"

Chocolate brown eyes blinked, meeting the stormy dark orbs of the ice mage, "Um, y-yeah. Of course!"

He eyed her suspiciously once more, and Lucy immediately averted her eyes before quietly wandering off to her bedroom. Once there, she locked her door shut and threw herself onto heavenly cloud that she called her bed, burying her face in as many pillows as she possibly could. A small part (read: _a majority_) of her heart was already yelling angry jumbles of words at her for leaving her house guest all alone in her living room without company, _especially_ after everything he had done for her. But to be honest, there wasn't really any point in denying it anymore…

Ever since last night… or perhaps, early this morning…

It just didn't feel the same between them.

She felt her heart clench as the genuine frown finally came to rest itself on her lips.

Just thinking back to that moment when he had yelled at her was enough for the young Celestial Spirit mage to tense up as tears began to well up in her eyes.

It was the curt knock on her door that shook her from her reverie, "Luce…?"

The single name_, Gray_, flashed through her mind, yet she found that she could make no move to respond to him. It was almost as if she herself had turned into the ice that the mage on the other side of her door was able to craft so beautifully.

The knock returned once more, but this time more quick and urgent, "_Lucy_?"

She squirmed uncomfortably, trying to ignore the tight, choking feeling that seemed to have wrapped itself around her chest, but to no avail.

For the third and final time, the knock returned, even faster than it had been before. "_Lucy! ?_"

Her lips parted, but no sound came out.

And it didn't seem to matter, for Gray had already kicked down the door, stormy eyes wide with worry as they darted around her room, before finally resting on her. She couldn't help but notice the color return to his face and the exhale of breath that left his lips. And even though his eyebrows furrowed, and his face contorted into an expression full of anger, she also noticed that his eyes still maintained that innocent worry despite his glare. "What the hell is _wrong_ with you? You've been in here for almost an hour, and I'm _pretty_ sure that everyone's due to come in a good fifteen minutes or so." It didn't seem to register to him yet that she had made no indication of his arrival other than the occasional blink of her chocolate-colored eyes. He didn't think it inappropriate for him to haphazardly collapse on her bed next to her sleeping form, and he surely didn't notice the way she flinched when his arm brushed hers as he moved to cross his arms under his head. "Look at what you made me do. I'm sure that Wendy and Juvia have woken up and are restless now. Why didn't you respond? If you had just managed even the _shortest_ response—"

"Gray…"

On normal circumstances, the ice mage would've ignored the soft murmur of his name and continued talking as though not a word had been said. But this time… his dark eyes flickered towards her much lighter ones. She shifted her body so that she was facing him head on. The golden locks that she had so delicately pulled back into a single ponytail were beginning to pull themselves astray, framing her features, and her eyes seemed… less warm than they did on normal occasions.

And the way she had whispered his name…

Before he allowed the thoughts to continue any more, he abruptly turned his head away from her, trying his best to hide the small blush that had appeared on his features.

It was Lucy's sad sigh that made him hesitantly glance towards her once more.

And on further inspection of her features, he finally noticed the tears that had welled up in her eyes. "Lucy—"

"You hate me, don't you."

She stated it as though it was a fact. And the way she made it sound, it was like someone stating a fact that was ultimately true, yet something that seemed so shocking and unbelievable. At her words, he felt his eyes widen considerably. He opened his mouth to hastily let a response tumble out on its own, but her words came faster than this.

"You hate me."

He watched in horror as the tears in her eyes welled up more, until one finally leaked out.

"You… You hate me."

Gray sat up quickly, moving to grab her by the shoulders to try and snap her out of her haunting mantra. But as soon as she stopped whispering the words to herself, her eyes shut tightly, and manic sobs began to rack her body. Hesitantly, Gray let go of her, feeling something in his heart clench. He watched quietly as the blonde-haired girl before him brought her knees to her chest and hugged herself as tight as she could as though it would help the pain disappear.

The feeling in his heart stirred more violently, and in reflex, Gray clutched the area where the organ was located, silently begging for it to stop. He barely even registered that he was shirtless.

The two stayed like that for a while, and it was silent, save Lucy's hushed sobs.

Miraculously, the tightening in his heart loosened up just enough for him to gain his senses, and the Ice Mage brought his gaze upward to stare at the woman before him. "Lucy… Why?"

Her only response was the slight shaking of her head.

Gray felt the frown on his features deepen, and not knowing what else to do, he moved next to her, carefully placing his arm around her shoulders. She seemed to accept the gesture, because she let go of herself and latched onto him instead, continuing to cry onto his bare chest.

He wouldn't deny it: Being able to be there for Lucy like this made part of him feel like soaring.

But he also couldn't deny that part of him felt like he was doing something completely and utterly wrong.

Before he realized what he was doing, he lightly pushed her away from him.

Her sobs had already lost most of their intensity, but her cheeks were still stained a bright scarlet. She used her arm to wipe away some stray tears before meeting his gaze. It was under this stare that Gray, for some strange reason that he couldn't comprehend, felt small, tiny, and inferior.

So he felt extremely surprised when a small smile was forced upon her lips. A choking noise that he assumed was supposed to be a forced laugh left her throat before she whispered, "I don't understand you at all, Gray. I thought I did… But now… I guess I don't."

He looked at her in silent wonder, but said nothing.

"I don't know why you do it, and I definitely don't know how your brain works… What's going on between us, Gray? What's going on in that head of yours?" She paused for a moment, and suddenly it seemed like her eyes were looking into his very soul, causing the Ice Mage to shiver, though very minutely. "Am I right? About Erza?"

At the name, he flinched.

Truth be told, ever since he had found her crying and singing about Jellal, Gray had been ignoring the scarlet-haired mage. He had never taken the time to decipher _why_ he was doing so, but now that his blonde haired friend brought it up, it had truly been brought to his attention. _Was_ she right?

"I… I…" His eyes darted around the room, desperately trying to focus on anything but the solemn eyes of the woman before him. Why did he suddenly feel so vulnerable? And around _Lucy_?

She let out another sad sigh, "You're doing it again."

Involuntarily, he felt his eyes flicker towards her once more. "… Doing what?"

The minute smile on her lips suddenly looked very sad as she whispered, "You're pushing people away, again…"

The stormy eyes of the Ice Mage widened slightly, "W-What are you—"

"I… When I was…" Lucy shook her head slightly, gently shutting her eyes. "I was thinking about it a few minutes ago… And I realized that you're pushing everyone away." Her brown eyes opened slowly, and though they were usually filled with such happiness and joy, they were now filled with a sort of empty sadness, "You act like you're tough, but inside, you're as helpless as a little boy. You don't know why you do what you do, and that kind of scares you. But for some reason, you're afraid to get attached to anyone who tries to help you… And you push them away, and yell at them, and make them feel like utter shit. When you do that," She averted her eyes from him as she continued, "It really messes people up. And they might think that you hate them." Her eyes meandered back to meet his blank stare, "But now that I've figured it out, I'm not going to let you push me away. I'm going to help you. No matter what happens, I'll be here."

It was quiet as the two simply regarded each other, but the silence was broken as Lucy quietly whispered, "When was the last time you let someone in?"

Gray was eerily quiet as he sorted through the thoughts that he realized he _had_ to sort through. But surprisingly enough, it seemed like Lucy didn't mind.

Before he registered what he was doing, the words left his mouth in a whisper, "I… I think I love her…"

Though Lucy had been expecting something like that, she couldn't stop the strange stirring in her heart that arose as soon as she heard his words. Now that he had admitted it though, Lucy wasn't entirely sure as to what course of action she should take.

However, it seemed like she didn't have to think too much, for Gray seemed to be doing all of it on his own. "But… Juvia…"

At this, Lucy felt a single eyebrow raise. _Juvia… Why has he brought up Juvia?_

"And… And Cana…"

_Cana…?_

Suddenly, his downcast eyes rose to meet hers. There was a sort of empty curiosity etched in them as he whispered, "And there's you, too, Lucy…"

"M-Me? Gray, what are you—"

In the blink of an eye, his face was directly in front of hers, and Lucy felt her eyes widen. "My feelings… I don't know how I feel about anyone…" His minty breath tickled her, surprising her with its warmth and making her blush.

At his words, she felt her heart rate pick up. All of a sudden, she felt extremely self-conscious of everything about her: her hair, her breath, her posture, the way her makeup might be running, and how she just realized that she wasn't even _wearing_ makeup, which juse made everything even worse.

But she did know one thing for sure: Though she felt like part of her was stirring with excitement, the other part of her felt _incredibly_ uncomfortable about the whole situation.

"I guess there's only one way to find out…"

And then, their lips touched.

* * *

"Oh, come _on_!" Natsu fumed angrily, continuously banging on the door to Lucy's apartment. "What the hell is up with her?"

Cana and Levy waited behind him anxiously, both lost in their own thoughts. It was obvious to anyone that the two were nervous as to what events would occur today, but it was Levy who felt the most uncomfortable.

She felt something stirring within her, like a bad omen. "I-I'm sure that she has a spare key somewhere…"

Natsu turned to face her, and there was a grateful grin on his face. "Good thinking, Levy! But… Where would she put it?" The flameheaded mage assumed a thinking position as he pretended to stare off into the distance, losing himself in his ideas.

"Try the doormat," Cana muttered abruptly, forcing Natsu out of his thoughts, "Spare keys are _always_ under doormats."

The DragonSlayer blinked at the simplicity of her suggestion, before nodding eagerly, "Right, right!" Eagerly, the young man fell to his knees, stuck his hand underneath his blonde friend's doormat, and reached around to locate his friend's spare key, reminding both Cana and Levy of a pet dog, either to find a bone.

The two sweatdropped as they wondered where the serious man who had given such an inspiring argument not too long ago had went.

Eventually, Natsu rose up from his knees, his right hand thrusting a rusted, old key into the air, "Got it!" And even though his two fellow mages weren't in the best of moods, his energetic smile was contagious enough for the two to allow a minute grin on their faces. At this, his expression seemed to widen as he turned to force the key into its lock.

The door swung open easily after that, and Natsu pivoted on his foot to the two women behind him, "Now let's find Lucy!"

The flameheaded mage darted into Lucy's place, and as the two mages behind him hesitantly followed, neither were all too surprised when they realized that Natsu had taken a detour towards the kitchen. Levy and Cana couldn't stop themselves from glancing at each other, before letting a few soft giggles escape their lips.

Realizing that _they _were technically the ones who would have to look for Lucy now, the two decided to leave Natsu to Lucy's fridge for the time being, and continued on their way throughout the blonde mage's house.

"Hey, maybe she fell asleep? Cana, maybe we should check out Lucy's room."

The brunette nodded at the slightly younger girl, "That's a good idea." She looked around herself for a moment, before adding, "Though I'm not entirely sure where that is."

A kind smile took over Levy's features as she nodded, "Alright then, follow my lead."

With that, the blunette spun on her heel, and began her advance towards the Celestial Spirit Mage's room, Cana following closely behind. When they got closer however, both of their eyes widened in horror.

"L-Lucy's door…"

The two turned to look at each other with wide eyes, before running as fast as they could towards the blonde's now empty doorway.

Levy's eyes seem to widen even _more_, while Cana instantly felt her heart drop as her body turned cold.

Lucy and Gray were both locked in a passionate embrace, their lips moving in synchronization with one another's. Lucy's pale arms were wrapped around Gray's neck, while Gray's muscular ones circled around her waist. Both seemed completely oblivious to their surroundings, not seeming to even notice the presence of the newcomers.

"Gray…"

At her pained whisper, the two immediately separated. Each of their faces were stained a bright crimson, and they each looked almost as surprised as both Cana and Levy. They were staring at each other with shock, until the Ice Mage abruptly broke the gaze to bring his wide eyes to meet Cana's.

"Cana, I…"

She broke his gaze, with a slight shake of her head, and cleared her throat slightly as she muttered, "Natsu's here, too. Lucy, he's raiding your fridge."

The brunette had expected _some_ kind of reaction from the Celestial Spirit Mage before her, but got none. In fact, the blonde-haired girl had an unreadable expression on her face, though the bright red of her cheeks was still evident.

Levy, sensing the hidden tension between the three other occupants of the room, hesitantly squeaked, "L-Let's get going then, shall we?"

* * *

It didn't take long for the others to arrive.

Gajeel and Mirajane arrived together, much to the surprise of Levy.

Lucy summoned Loke, and as soon as he arrived, he looked angered, and seemed as though he would've strangled someone (namely Gray) if it wasn't for the look on Lucy's face.

Despite the fact that he seemed utterly out of it, Natsu forced Gray to help him bring Juvia and Wendy into the main room where the "meeting" was being held. Wendy had woken up, mumbling something about having a dream where Gray was beating up different doors named Lucy (much to the amusement of Natsu and the chagrin of Gray), yet Juvia remained fast asleep.

They were all sitting on three different couches that surrounded a coffee table, which Lucy had Virgo supply with numerous pastries, cookies, and drinks. However, no one really bothered to touch them, save Gajeel, Natsu, and Wendy.

On the largest sofa which was in the middle, sat Levy, Gajeel, and Mirajane, with Gajeel in the middle. As though she had no memories of what had transpired only hours ago, Wendy insisted that Natsu allow her to sit on Mira's lap, pleasantly surprising the older mage. On the couch to the left of the aforementioned one, sat Loke and Cana, and on the sofa on the other side awkwardly sat Lucy and Gray. In front of the coffee table, a mat had been laid out in order to lay Juvia. Though Mira insisted that Natsu put her back in the room, the fire DragonSlayer was convinced that if Juvia woke up and wanted to say something herself, then she should be able to.

Standing before all the people gathered was Natsu, munching on a chocolate chip cookie. The mages that were gathered in the room waited patiently (well, at least _some_ of them) for the "leader" of the whole operation to finish, but when he did, he looked somewhat puzzled.

"You know, I'm not really sure what I should say."

Immediately, the others sweatdropped.

"Uh… Well, in case you all were wondering, my chest hurts like hell, I think someone needs to buy me an extra pair of clothes, and I can't feel my brain."

Gajeel rolled his eyes, "Like you ever _had_ a brain."

Natsu's eyes narrowed, and he opened his mouth to offer the Iron DragonSlayer a nasty retort, but Cana beat him to it, "Get on with it, Natsu. Some of us have more important things to be doing."

For some reason, Gray felt like the tint of venom in her voice, though extremely minute, was directed at him, and he wished he could just disappear. It suddenly felt _extremely_ uncomfortable sitting next to Lucy, and he was beginning to wonder _how_ they even ended up sitting next to each other in the first place.

But it seemed like Gray was the only one to hear any hint of discontent in the brunette mage's voice, as Natsu continued on as if Cana's interruption was the most normal thing in the world, "Right, right. Sorry, I guess I got a bit distracted." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly for a moment, as though trying to get his mind back on the right track. When he raised his eyes to look back at his comrades gathered before him, there was the sudden gleam of determination in his eyes, though there was still an idiotic grin on his face, "Okay, I remember now."

"It's the moment of truth, you guys. You all know that if I had my way, we wouldn't even be here. We would know that helping Erza and saving Jellal is what we _have_ to do. But I can't do it without you guys. I know it's a huge risk, and after what happened to Juvia and what happened to… to…" The DragonSlayer hesitated for a moment, and Lucy immediately felt a pang of pity for the young man before her, knowing that if even only _one_ tear fell from his eyes, she would lose it as well.

Her eyes, however, were drawn towards Mira, who had averted her gaze away from the flameheaded DragonSlayer before her. She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when Gajeel rested his hand over hers in a strange form of reassurance. Lucy didn't think that Levy was able to see it from where she was sitting, but she noticed that Wendy had noticed it just as she had, for her eyes had widened minutely as she nibbled on the piece of cake that she had stabbed with her fork.

Natsu cleared his throat awkwardly, bringing the Celestial Spirit Mage's focus back towards him. "We're all kinds of scared about what might end up happening to the rest of us… But fear is something that everyone must always overcome. And I mean… we're all doing it for Erza, right?"

There was a short pause during which not a word was spoken. However, the silence was broken by Loke, who bluntly stated, "Well, let's put it to a vote, then."

Levy stood up from her seat, pulling out a small notebook from the crossbody bag she was sporting. It looked simple enough: a dark brown suede covering the outer layer of the book. Yet there was a strong magical aura coating it, and all eyes were staring at it in wonder. "I brought what you asked, Natsu…"

Wendy stared at it with a childish sort of curiosity, "What is it?"

Levy allowed her eyes to drift towards Natsu, as though she was asking his permission. The flamehaired boy offered a small nod, and Levy opened her mouth to explain, "It's a special kind of notebook, the kind that the Council uses when they're nominating new candidates to join both them and the Ten Wizard Saints. Once you write something in it, it'll disappear. Once all the votes or nominations have been placed, you close the book, and in about twenty minutes, it'll open itself, revealing the choice that received the most support."

Gajeel blinked at it, before muttering, "And how did you get your hands on it?"

Everyone leaned in a little closer, as they all were kind of curious as to what the blunette's answer would be. But much to their disappointment, she only blushed and muttered, "That's none of your business."

Deciding that he would take the role of Levy's knight in shining armor, Natsu stepped in, "Come on, you guys. Let's just get this voting thing over with."

The others mumbled in response to his words, while Levy shot him a grateful smile that Natsu happily returned. She pushed the sweets and drinks away from a small portion of the table, just enough room for her to set the notebook down, and pulled out a fountain pen from her bag, also placing it down on the table. The bookworm then stepped out of the way, gesturing towards the area, "You guys can vote first. I'll vote last since I have to use my magic to let the book know that we've finished voting."

Her fellow mages nodded, before they each got up to place their vote.

* * *

Twenty minutes felt much longer than it should have. Especially for Mirajane.

The tired eyes of the beloved Fairy Tail barmaid were puffy from all her shed tears, and her usually neat hair was in a severe state of disarray. In fact, she probably wouldn't have even _come_ to the arranged meeting if it weren't for Gajeel's sudden appearance on her doorstep when she had woken.

"_Hey… I was wondering… Can I talk to you_?"

At the mere thought of the memory, the silver-haired girl shifted her eyes to the Iron DragonSlayer who was gleefully stuffing his face with forks that the mages that had insisted weren't hungry had disposed of. Wendy and Natsu were each on either of his sides, eagerly eating the food that the others had left untouched.

She couldn't stop the small smile nor the large blush from appearing across her features.

But she easily tore her eyes away from him once she saw Juvia stir. The hesitation she felt was brief, and before Mira was even realizing what she was doing, she was already kneeling by her side, a reassuring smile plastered onto her features, "Juvia?"

The swollen eyes of the water mage fluttered open, "Lisanna…"

Immediately, Mirajane felt the smile melt away. _This girl…_

"She's alive."

And that caused Mira to lose it.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! ?"

She felt all eyes in the room on her, wide with shock. But she was oblivious to all of that right now. Her chest was already rising heavily with the numerous breaths she was taking, and she felt the sting of the tears threatening to fall. "What are you trying to do to me! ? WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE TO YOU TO ALLOW YOU TO FORCE ME THROUGH ALL THIS PAIN! ?"

Juvia's eyes betrayed no emotion, and Mirajane raised her hand to slap her, but Gajeel had already grabbed her wrist. "Mira… You need to calm down."

The silver-haired women turned her glaring blue eyes towards him, snatching her hand away from him, and turning her attention back to the fallen mage that lay on the ground, "I don't know what game you're playing at… Why are you sifting through these tales… _Why_ can't you tell me the truth! ?"

Juvia said nothing once more, which only angered the Transformation Mage even more.

The blue-eyed woman stood up with her fists clenched tightly at her sides, squeezing her eyes shut trying to stop the tears leaking out of her eyes, but to no avail, "CUT THE CRAP AND TELL ME THE TRUTH, GODDAMMIT!"

But it was no use, for the Water Mage had already lost her consciousness.

Realizing this, Mira fell to her knees on the floor, sobbing madly now, the attention of her comrades only intensifying the numerous emotions within her. She had figured that it would be Gajeel to try and calm her down once more, but she wasn't surprised either when she felt Natsu's hand soothingly rubbing her back, "Mira…"

She opened her mouth to speak, but was stopped when she felt a horrible tightening in her chest. "I-It hurts… so much…"

The others in the room that hadn't resumed their worry over Juvia (everyone besides Gray and Gajeel) continued to offer the Transformation Mage varying looks of sympathy. "W-Why…"

Suddenly she felt someone poke her arm, and Mirajane allowed herself to warily raise her eyes towards the intruder.

It was none other than Wendy, her eyes wide with worry, "M-Mira-San…" She paused for a moment, before engulfing her in large hug, that Natsu awkwardly ended up joining, "Everything will be alright."

At this, Mira felt her lower lip quiver, before the sobs began to truly take over her body. "I just… I thought I had accepted it, but… That feeling she gave me… That feeling of renewed hope that can't _possibly_ be real…" She choked on her sobs again, and it took a while before she was able to finish her sentence, "It hurts so much!"

The two DragonSlayers only tightened their embrace.

* * *

Levy looked onward at Wendy, Natsu, and Mirajane, the frown still etched on her face. "Poor Mira-San…"

The blonde mage beside her only nodded.

Suspicious of her friend's longtime silence, Levy averted her eyes towards her, "Lucy, what on Earth is going on with—"

Before she could finish the thought, there was a sharp knock at the door. Figuring that someone else would answer it, the blunette mage ignored it, and began her sentence over, "Lucy, what's going on with you—"

The sharp knock came once more.

Looking around and realizing that no one (not even _Lucy_, who was the _owner_ of the apartment) was making any move to answer it, the bookworm halfheartedly announced, "Okay, okay. I'll get it."

Leaving the side of her best friend, Levy made her way towards the entrance of the apartment, before staring upwards at the peephole that would allow her to see who had decided to pay her friend a visit. _It would probably be best of me to check it out before opening the door_…

With that thought, she raised herself upward on her tippy-toes so that she would be able to peer through the small hole…

But the thing is: Even though she was at her maximum height in that one moment, she was still too short to be able to look through the door.

The frown on her face seemed to deepen at this realization, and she automatically looked around her for something she could stand on. It was at this moment that she realized that all the chairs and empty tables were back in the meeting room, and she knew that if she snatched one for this reason, they would all poke fun of her height _again_.

And honestly? Levy was getting tired of all the midget jokes.

Usually, she didn't end up in this predicament. Because usually, Lucy would answer her _own_ door.

And even if she didn't, she always had a certain DragonSlayer offering to lift her up…

Levy shook the thought away with a sad sigh as she remembered her _friend_'s new acquaintance with the beautiful Mirajane, and if possible, the frown on her lips deepened even _more. _

Deciding that it really didn't even _matter_ anymore as to who was at the doorway, Levy unlocked the door, and twisted the knob.

Once the door was fully open, she felt her body run cold, her eyes widen, and her jaw drop.

Yeah. She _probably_ should've made a bigger effort to look through the peephole.

"_E-Erza_! ? W-What are you doing here! ?"

At the blunette's frantic cry, all eyes immediately shifted towards the doorway.

The scarlet mage in question stood on the steps, a puzzled look on her face. She looked paler than usual, and she wasn't even wearing her usually armor. In fact, it looked like she had rolled out of bed, thrown on the first clothes she had seen, and then made her way here. "W-What's going on here?"

Levy felt her heart beat faster as she scrambled to come up with a proper excuse, "I….I…"

Erza shook her head, waving away the blunette's words. "That doesn't matter right now. I… I need your help anyway… _All _of your help…"

The eyes in the room widened even more. _Erza_ needing _help_! ?

Seeing their expressions, the scarlet-haired mage averted her gaze, before hesitantly stepping to the side.

The aura in the room turned frigid.

"No… This can't be real…"

With a hesitant smile plastered onto his features, blue hair wind-tossed and messy, stood Jellal.

* * *

**A Wishful Thought: **ACKKKJLAKFJAL;WEKFJALWKEFJA;LEK!

Dammit. THIS CHAPTER, YOU GUYS! D:

I had no idea how I should be writing it. I just couldn't decide how I wanted it to come out! And I REALLY wanted to get it out before tomorrow (because after thought, God knows when I'd be able to update again), so you can see where I ended up rushing. D:

Man, I really feel like I let you guys down.

That being said, this is being published unedited, so I'd be happy if you were each able to point out any mistakes that you noticed. I'm definitely going to come back and edit this chapter when I have more free time.

ANYWAY, NOW TO MY THOUGHTS ON THIS CHAPTER. X3

LOLOLOL, I don't know why I made Gray such a manwhore in this story. But for now, I guess he is. XD

SPEAKING OF MANWHORES, I'm going to awkwardly change the subject to the couples in this story. XD As you all may know, I'm doing something kind of weird, as in letting you (the readers) have a say in who ends up together. By this, I mean you can just leave in your review which couples you really want to be seeing, and I'll try and throw them into the upcoming chapters. Lately, I've been getting a lot into the raw emotion of the characters, so… yeah. X3

ALSO, I have no idea what I did to Wendy. XD I made her act like such a little kid! But I guess that's because that's how I see her: A little kid. If you guys have any tips on how to write Wendy, I'd greatly appreciate them! Part of me feels like I'm not capturing the real essence of her character.

I think it's because I keep thinking about Shaman King, more specifically, a certain character named Manta. XD And for those who have read it, I know that it doesn't make much sense at all, but I think that that's the only explanation I can offer for now. XP

_**REVIEW **_please! THEY MAKE ME THE HAPPIEST PERSON ALIVE!

**Next Time**: Even _more_ people lose it. And they've all been doing that a lot lately. O_o


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